vehemently denied by the overseer, was crying
bitterly. I asked her what ailed her, when, more by signs and dumb show
than words, she and old Rose informed me that Mr. O---- had flogged her
that morning, for having told me that the women had not time to keep their
children clean. It is part of the regular duty of every overseer to visit
the infirmary at least once a day, which he generally does in the morning,
and Mr. O----'s visit had preceded mine but a short time only, or I might
have been edified by seeing a man horsewhip a woman. I again and again
made her repeat her story, and she again and again affirmed that she had
been flogged for what she told me, none of the whole company in the room
denying it, or contradicting her. I left the room, because I was so
disgusted and indignant, that I could hardly restrain my feelings, and to
express them could have produced no single good result. In the next ward,
stretched upon the ground, apparently either asleep or so overcome with
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