Suffering had educated them morally
and intellectually. They gazed curiously at Mr. Wilding and me, but
nobody said a word. In the bed next to the mate lay a little boy with a
broken thigh. The surgeon observed that children generally did well with
accidents; and this boy certainly looked very bright and cheerful. There
was nothing particularly interesting about the mate.
After finishing our business, the surgeon showed us into another room of
the surgical ward, likewise devoted to cases of accident and injury. All
the beds were occupied, and in two of them lay two American sailors who
had recently been stabbed. They had been severely hurt, but were doing
very well. The surgeon thought that it was a good arrangement to have
several cases together, and that the patients kept up one another's
spirits,--being often merry together. Smiles and laughter may operate
favorably enough from bed to bed; but dying groans, I should think, must
be somewhat of a discouragement. Nevertheless, the previous habits and
modes of life of such people as compose the more numerous class of
patients in a hospital must be considered before deciding this matter.
It is very possible that their misery likes such bedfellows as it here
finds.
As we were taking our leave, the surgeon asked us if we should not like
to see the operating-room; and before we could reply he threw open the
door, and behold, there was a roll of linen "garments rolled in blood,"--
and a bloody fragment of a human arm! The surgeon glanced at me, and
smiled kindly, but as if pitying my discomposure.
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