Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1896 — A Heartless Experiment. [ARTICLE]

A Heartless Experiment.

The Lancet tells this story to show the trials of a country doctor in France. A young physician settled in a commune, whose pappers he attended for ten dollars per annum. One night, soon after his arrival at this Eldorado, he received an urgent summons to visit a. patient who lived at a distance of six kilometers from the village. On reaching the cottage—it was then 11 p. in.— he found the doors closed and lights extinguished. In repy to his knocks the door was opened by a sturdy peasant, who laughingly informed him that there was no illness in the house, but that his wife had wished to see if, when anyone was ill, he would come if sent for! The unfortunate medico—since dead from overwork, and probably underfeeding—remarked: “I could have felled him to the ground.”