Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-06-22

the beds The faces of these seven
men are woefully wretched. drawn and
horribly yellow and wearied. Two
raise their heads ard look at us. the
rest hardly move their ewes. one or
two groan but there is little sound
from the others. The disease must be
wearving, yet il Works so quickly that
there is hardly time for il to weaken
the sick man utterly. There have been
many cases where the man got up and
walked on the day Of his death. and
some even walked from their homes to
the plague hospitals
Though little is known of the action
of the bacillus it is thought that the
virulent toxin, crested by the bacillus
during termination acts upon the
nerve system, affecting the heart. At
ter the appearance Of the first symp-
tom it acts with striking suddenness.
and it is supposed the poison hardly
has Time to weaken the man to an ex-
tremity. AS he approaches death,
however. a eomatose state is brought
on in which he becomes very weak.
staggering as in drunkenness, and fl
nally falling, if alone, unable TO rise
again.
The many victims who were found in
the streets in the morning during the
height of the epidemic here had been
overcome in this way. Also, in the
last stages of the disease some cases
become mentally affected and endeavor
to wander about, Though there is
some discomfort in the lungs it is not
the pneumonia but the poison in the
blood which kills The CHASTITY, sick
ening yellow in the face appears to be
one evidence of the poison. Another
is the purple color in the body in the
septicaemic cases.
We have been standing for a minute
or two Just inside the door with these
people from whom there is no escape
from death. "Schneller" quicker
calls the doctor, and we pass out into
the hallway, realizing that this is ne
ordinary form OF sickness. The sec
ond ward is the same. There are the
seven or eight wearied men, lying com
paratively comfortably. Each lies on
a separate iron bed. The room is wei
lighted with two large windows. and
it is warm and fairly well veltilated
IL this is the Russian roughness and
cruelty we hear OF, their gentleness
and charity must be little short oi
heavenly. The Russian Government is
doing we'll by the plague patients
The men look So sick that it woulG
appear TO matter little to them wheth-
er they lay on bed or out in the
snow and ice. Ne remedy has beer
discovered so far to prevent death
and it remains only to make the last
few hours of their lives as. comfortable
as possible. We close the door upon
them, passing out. knowing that most
of them will have died before the
nightfall and will be taken away next
morning to the cremation grounds
The doctor evidently feels the diff
Guilty of breathing through his muller
for he has just torn it off and stands
in the office room, the little nurse, too
has something more than her eyes Il
smile with. But |. less hardened t.
the place, stay muf1ed like the SAM
tars."
Getting out of the plague hospital is
something like getting out of mine
through different stages of compressed
air compartments. First we vast gu
hands; then swish our boots round in
tubs of disinfectant. Next an outside
coat comes off and is left behind in
one room to be sterilized. Then subli-
mate solution is pumped over the rest
of us. The doctor. having been spray
ed, continues to wear his white under