Page:Weird Tales Volume 4 Number 2 (1924-05-07).djvu/66

 use, he hurried away while I remained at the post he had assigned me.

There was no change in the condition of Goodsmith during his absence. At intervals of about half an hour the same hollow voice exclaimed, "I died at three o'clock this morning. The specter kept his word." Dr. Hobson returned in the course of an hour with Dr. James, a trained nurse accompanying them. I left the room while they made their examination and talked the case over, which occupied them somewhat longer than two hours. I called my office, telling them I would not be down, then went to Miss Arabella, whom I attempted to console. This was an impossible task as she deeply loved her brother and sat in a state of dejection from which it was beyond my power to rouse her.

On emerging from the sick room the doctors came immediately to the library where we were sitting, Dr. James announcing the result of their efforts. "We have tried every means to rouse him," he said, "but without avail. He does not respond to the usual methods of awakening a hypnotic subject and apparently feels no pain as we have resorted to measures we would not think ofusing, did we not think the case desperate. Heart stimulants and restoratives have been equally powerless. We can only wait and hope for the best, trusting he will emerge naturally from his trance-like state. The nurse will stay with the patient and we will return at intervals during the day. She has full instructions how to act in case there in any sign of improvement."

They were as good as their word, making several calls during the day and night but there was no change in the condition of my poor friend. By the third day we had given up hope. The voice still came hollowly with the same dreadful announcement. The lips had lost much of their color and the face had assumed an ashen hue. The flesh was drawn and the body had become stiff as in death. I remarked to Dr. James that the patient resembled one who had been dead for several days. "Yes," he returned, "I had hesitated to mention it, but it is a fact that decomposition is actually doing its work, yet we know there is still life, the soul remains and continues to announce the death of the body. It is the most astounding case of the control of mind over matter that human eyes have ever witnessed. The subliminal mind has become possessed of an idea which it has assumed to be a fact—and behold the result! I fear that a few more hours will usher in the end."

The next two days passed as the preceding ones. The hollow voice still sounded and the body showed additional evidences of decay. The fifth night was exceeding hot and close. The nurse had removed her cot into the hall by a window where it was possible to get a little air. I rose early the following morning, meeting her at the door of her patient's room and we entered together. We stopped gasping on the threshold, overwhelmed by the putrid odor which filled the room. It was the odor of the grave. The doctors arrived at this moment and we all hastened in, forgetting in the awfulness of the situation the disagreeable air. The body had undergone further change. The lips were now ashen and drawn. The mouth had fallen open, while the face had a greenish tinge. The body lay in an advanced state of decomposition, the hollow voice came no more and Plato Goodsmith was indeed, dead."

OHN DOWLING, a poor laboring man, living at Wattisham, had a wife and six children, the eldest a girl, fifteen years of age, the youngest about four months. They were all that time very healthy, and one of them had been ill for some time before. On Sunday the 10th of January, 1762, the eldest girl complained, in the morning, of a pain in her leg; particularly in the calf of her leg; toward evening the pain grew exceedingly violent. The same evening, another girl complained of the same violent pain in the same leg. On the Monday, the mother and another child; and on Tuesday, all the rest of the family were afflicted in the same manner, some in one leg and some in both legs. The little infant was taken from the mother's breast; it seemed to be in pain, but the limbs did not mortify: it lived a few weeks. The mother and the other five children continued in violent pain a considerable time. In about four or five days, the diseased leg began to turn black gradually, appearing at first covered with blue spots, as if it had been bruised. The other leg of those who were afflicted at first only in one leg about that time was also affected with the same excruciating pain, and in a few days the leg also began to mortify. The mortified parts separated gradually from the sound parts, and the surgeon had, in most of the cases, no' other trouble than to cut through the bone, which was black and almost dry. The state of their limbs was thus: Mary, the mother, aged 40 years, has lost the right foot at the ancle; the left foot is also cut off, and the two bones of the leg remain almost dry, with only some little putrid flesh adhering in the same places. The flesh is sound to about two inches below the knee. The bones would have been sawn through that place, if she would have consented to it.

Mary, aged fifteen years, both legs off below the knees—Elizabeth, aged thirteen years, both legs off below the knees. Sarah, aged ten years, one foot off at the ancle: the other foot was affected, but not in so great a degree, and was now sound again. Robert, aged eight, both legs off below the knees. Edward, aged four years, both feet off. An infant four months old, dead.

The father was attacked about a fortnight after the rest of the family, and in a slight degree; the pain being confined to his fingers. Two fingers of the right hand continued for a long time discolored, and partly shrunk and contracted; but he subsequently had some use of them. The nails of the other hand were also discolored; he lost two of them.

It is remarkable, that during all the time of this misfortune, the whole family are said to have appeared well, in other respects, ate heartily, and slept well when the violence of the pain began to abate. The mother was quite emaciated and had very little use of her hands. The eldest girl had a superficial ulcer in one thigh. The rest of the family were pretty well. The stumps of some of them perfectly healed.