Reminiscences: The Story of an EmigrantMattson, Hans
History
Reminiscences: The Story of an Emigrant
Mattson, Hans
India -- Description and travel; Mattson, Hans, 1832-1893; Swedish Americans -- Biography
At the foot of the Himalayas is a very extensive territory called Teraj.
Its soil is very fertile and adapted for tea culture. The whole
territory is covered with timber, bushes and other plants, which, with
the exception of certain cultivated portions, form an impenetrable
jungle, affording a natural resort for tigers, leopards, and other wild
beasts. The lofty mountains and the dense jungles shut out the sun, and
the whole region is full of poisonous vapors which are never dispelled.
It would be almost certain death for an European to live there for any
length of time, and it is customary even in passing through the country
on the railway train to take double doses of quinine as a precaution.
The fever and cholera which are thus generated in the jungles and spread
through the rice fields cause terrible ravages, not only among the
Europeans, but also among the natives. Medical science has done a great
deal to mitigate this evil, and the cholera, at least, has been
carefully studied and controlled by the medical department of the
Anglo-Indian army, so at present the malady is not feared so much as
might be expected. The germs of the disease consist of microbes, which
are carried in swarms by the wind. If such a pestiferous current of air
strikes a place where soldiers are stationed, they are immediately
ordered to break camp, and in a few hours the whole force is marching at
a right angle with the wind, and after a day's march and a night's
bivouac the physicians are generally able to tell whether the troops are
out of the cholera district or not. If not, the march is continued day
after day, always at a right angle with that of the preceding day, until
the air contains no more cholera microbes.
Old officers of the army told me that they had seen the cholera pass
over one part of the camp attacking every fourth man on one side of the
camp street without touching a single one on the other. It is claimed
that the fear and anxiety caused by this dreadful malady are even more
dangerous than the disease itself.
One day while sitting at my breakfast table I received a message from
the University hospital that an American sailor was very anxious to see
me before he died. I immediately drove over there and was met at the
entrance by the president, Dr. J. M. Coates, but when I arrived in the
cholera apartment the man had just died. A sister of mercy was present
at his death-bed, and had promised to carry his last message to me,
which consisted in a greeting of love and a few trinkets to be sent to
his mother in the state of Maine. There was a large apartment filled
with cholera patients. Many of the native patients were visited by their
friends and relatives; for the Hindoos do not entertain any fear of
death, but rather court it, believing that a death caused by a
contagious disease or a poisonous snake is simply a dispensation of
Providence by which they are called away to a better life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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