Temperature: 99.7. Respiration: rising to 65 and then suddenly
suspended. The face is flushed, and the eyes are glazed and half-closed.
There is obviously a sub-normal reaction to external stimuli. A fly upon
the ear is unnoticed. The auditory nerve is anesthetic. There is a
swaying of the whole body and an apparent failure of co-ordination,
probably the effect of some disturbance in the semi-circular canals of
the ear. The hands tremble and then clutch wildly. The head is inclined
forward as if to approach some object on a level with the shoulder. The
mouth stands partly open, and the lips are puckered and damp. Of a
sudden there is a sound as of a deep and labored inspiration, suggesting
the upward curve of Cheyne-Stokes breathing. Then comes silence for 40
seconds, followed by a quick relaxation of the whole body and a sharp
gasp....
One of the internes has kissed a nurse.
_V.--The Interior Hierarchy_
The world awaits that pundit who will study at length the relative
respectability of the inward parts of man--his pipes and bellows, his
liver and lights. The inquiry will take him far into the twilight zones
of psychology. Why is the vermiform appendix so much more virtuous and
dignified than its next-door neighbor, the caecum? Considered
physiologically, anatomically, pathologically, surgically, the caecum is
the decenter of the two. It has more cleanly habits; it is more
beautiful; it serves a more useful purpose; it brings its owner less
often to the doors of death. And yet what would one think of a lady who
mentioned her caecum? But the appendix--ah, the appendix! The appendix
is pure, polite, ladylike, even noble. It confers an unmistakable
stateliness, a stamp of position, a social consequence upon its
possessor. And, by one of the mysteries of viscerology, it confers even
_more_ stateliness upon its _ex_-possessor!
Alas, what would you! Why is the stomach such a libertine and outlaw in
England, and so highly respectable in the United States? No Englishman
of good breeding, save he be far gone in liquor, ever mentions his
stomach in the presence of women, clergymen, or the Royal Family. To
avoid the necessity--for Englishmen, too, are subject to the colic--he
employs various far-fetched euphemisms, among them, the poetical Little
Mary. No such squeamishness is known in America. The American discusses
his stomach as freely as he discusses his business. More, he regards its
name with a degree of respect verging upon reverence--and so he uses it
as a euphemism for the whole region from the diaphragm to the pelvic
arch. Below his heart he has only a stomach and a vermiform appendix.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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