MISS KOEHLER (_at the bedside, distressed and pale_): “He must have
died some time between one and two, doctor. I left him at one o’clock,
comfortable as I could make him. He said he was feeling as well as
could be expected. He’s been very weak during the last few days, taking
only a little gruel. Between half past one and two I thought I heard
a noise, and came to see. He was lying just as you see here, except
that his hands were up to his throat, as if it were hurting or choking
him. I put them down for fear they would stiffen that way. In trying to
call one of the other nurses just now, I found that the bell was out of
order, although I know it was all right when I left, because he always
made me try it. So he may have tried to ring.”
DR. MAJOR _(turning the head and examining the throat_): “It looks as
if he had clutched at his throat rather tightly this time, I must say.
Here is the mark of his thumb on this side and of his four fingers
on the other. Rather deep for the little strength he had. Odd that
he should have imagined that some one else was trying to choke him,
when he was always pressing at his own neck! Throat tuberculosis is
very painful at times. That would explain the desire to clutch at his
throat.”
MISS LIGGETT: “He was always believing that an evil spirit was trying
to choke him, doctor.”
DR. MAJOR: “Yes, I know—association of ideas. Dr. Scain and I agree
as to that. He had a bad case of chronic tuberculosis of the throat,
with accompanying malnutrition, due to the effect of the throat on the
stomach; and his notion about evil spirits pursuing him and trying
to choke him was simply due to an innate tendency on the part of the
subconscious mind to join things together—any notion, say, with any
pain. If he had had a diseased leg, he would have imagined that evil
spirits were attempting to saw it off, or something like that. In the
same way the condition of his throat affected his stomach, and he
imagined that the spirits were doing something to his food. Make out a
certificate showing acute tuberculosis of the esophagus as the cause,
with delusions of persecution as his mental condition. While I am here
we may as well look in on Mr. Baff.”