"

"The epigastrium must be very painful. Don't you feel great heat around
that region?--uneasiness, lassitude, nausea?"

"Yes, sir. I was quite worn out when I gave up, if not, I should never
have left my children; and then, my Catherine! Oh, if you--"

"Put out your tongue," said the doctor, again interrupting the patient.

This appeared so strange to Jeanne, who thought to excite the doctor's
pity, that she did not reply immediately, but looked at him with alarm.

"Show me your tongue, which you know so well how to use," said the
doctor, with a smile; and he pushed down Jeanne's lower jaw with the end
of his finger. After having had his pupils successively, and for some
time, feel and examine the subject's tongue, in order to ascertain its
colour and dryness, Jeanne, overcoming her fear for a moment, said, in a
tremulous voice:

"Sir, I was going to say to you, my neighbours, who are as poor as
myself, have been so kind as to take care of my children for a week
only, which is a great deal; so at the end of that time I must be back
home again. So I beg of you, in God's name, to cure me as quickly as you
can, or nearly so, that I may return to work; and I have but a week
before me,--for--"

"Discoloured face,--complete state of prostration,--yet the pulse
strong, quick, and regular," said the doctor, imperturbably, and
pointing to Jeanne. "Remark her well, gentlemen: oppression, heat in the
epigastric regions. All these symptoms certainly betoken haematemesis,
probably complicated by hepatitis, caused by domestic troubles, as is
indicated by the yellow discoloration of the eyeball. The subject has
had violent blows in the regions of the epigastrium and abdomen; the
vomiting blood is the necessary consequence of some organic injury to
the viscera. On this point let me call your attention to a very curious,
remarkably curious, feature. The post-mortem appearances of those who
die of the injuries under which the subject is suffering frequently
present remarkable appearances; frequently the malady, very severe and
very dangerous, carries off the patient in a few days, and then no trace
of it is found."

Doctor Griffon then, throwing off the bed-clothes, nearly denuded poor
Jeanne. It would be repugnant to describe the struggle of the
unfortunate creature, who, in her shame, implored the doctor and his
auditory. But at the threat, "You will be turned out of the hospital, if
you do not submit to the established usag