sickness as to be incapable of moving, lay an immense woman,--her stature,
as she cumbered the earth, must have been, I should think, five feet seven
or eight, and her bulk enormous. She was wrapped in filthy rags, and lay
with her face on the floor. As I approached, and stooped to see what ailed
her, she suddenly threw out her arms, and, seized with violent
convulsions, rolled over and over upon the floor, beating her head
violently upon the ground, and throwing her enormous limbs about in a
horrible manner. Immediately upon the occurrence of this fit, four or five
women threw themselves literally upon her, and held her down by main
force; they even proceeded to bind her legs and arms together, to prevent
her dashing herself about; but this violent coercion and tight bandaging
seemed to me, in my profound ignorance, more likely to increase her
illness, by impeding her breathing, and the circulation of her blood, and
I bade them desist, and unfasten all the strings and ligatures, not only
that they had put round her limbs, but which, by tightening her clothes
round her body, caused any obstruction. How much I wished that, instead of
music and dancing and such stuff, I had learned something of sickness and
health, of the conditions and liabilities of the human body, that I might
have known how to assist this poor creature, and to direct her ignorant
and helpless nurses! The fit presently subsided, and was succeeded by the
most deplorable prostration and weakness of nerves, the tears streaming
down the poor woman's cheeks in showers, without, however, her uttering a
single word, though she moaned incessantly. After bathing her forehead,
hands, and chest with vinegar, we raised her up, and I sent to the house
for a chair with a back (there was no such thing in the hospital,) and we
contrived to place her in it. I have seldom seen finer women than this
poor creature and her younger sister, an immense strapping lass, called
Chloe--tall, straight, and extremely well made--who was assisting her
sister, and whom I had remarked, for the extreme delight and merriment
which my cleansing propensities seemed to give her, on my last visit to