The Strand Magazine, Vol. 01, Issue 02, February 1891: An Illustrated MonthlyVarious
General
The Strand Magazine, Vol. 01, Issue 02, February 1891: An Illustrated Monthly
Various
English literature -- Periodicals; Short stories, English -- Periodicals
Leaving that lower region (which is, of course, deserted when we view it
in the afternoon) we re-ascend to look at the little in-patients. From
the first ward we seek to enter we are admonished by our own senses to
turn back. We have barely looked in when the faint, sweet odour of
chloroform hanging in the air, the hiss of the antiseptic-spray machine,
and the screens placed round a cot inform us that one of the surgeons is
conducting an operation. The ward is all hushed in silence, for the
children are quick to learn that, when the big, kind-eyed doctor is
putting a little comrade to sleep in order to do some clever thing to
him to make him well, all must be as quiet as mice. There is no more
touching evidence of the trust and faith of childhood than the readiness
with which these children yield themselves to the influence of
chloroform, and surrender themselves without a pang of fear into the
careful hands of the doctor. Sometimes, when an examination or an
operation is over, there is a little flash of resentment, as in the case
of the poor boy who, after having submitted patiently to have his lungs
examined, exclaimed to the doctor, "I'll tell my mother you've been
a-squeezing of me!"
We cross to the other side and enter the ward called after Queen
Victoria. The ward is quiet, for it is one of those set apart for
medical cases. Here the poor mites of patients are almost all lying weak
and ill. On the left, not far from the door, we come upon a pretty and
piteous sight. In a cot roofed and curtained with white, save on one
side, lies a little flaxen-haired girl--a mere baby of between two and
three--named "Daisy." Her eyes are open, but she does not move when we
look at her; she only continues to cuddle to her bosom her brush and
comb, from which, the nurse tells us, she resolutely refuses to be
parted. She is ill of some kind of growths in the throat, and on the
other side of her cot stands a bronchial kettle over a spirit-lamp,
thrusting its long nozzle through the white curtain of the cot to
moisten and mollify the atmosphere breathed by the little patient. While
our artist prepares to make a sketch, we note that the baby's eyes are
fixed on the vapours from the kettle, which are curling and writhing,
and hovering and melting over her. What does she think of them? Do they
suggest to her at all, child though she is, the dimness and evanescence
of that human life which she is thus painfully beginning? Does she
wonder what it all means--her illness, the curling vapour, and the
people near her bed? Poor Daisy! There are scores of children like her
here, and tens of thousands out of doors, who suffer thus for the sins
of society and the sins of their parents. It is possible to pity her and
them without reserve, for they have done nothing to bring these
sufferings on themselves. Surely, then, their parents and society owe it
to them that all things possible should be done to set them in the way
of health.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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