Terrifying as the plague itself was, the fear of death was almost eclipsed by the revolting disposal of the dead:
“You know it is the Siamese custom to burn their dead, but so fearfully did deaths multiply that a shorter mode of disposal was resorted to, and multitudes of corpses were thrown without ceremony, as you would throw the carcass of a dog into the river. These dead bodies could be seen any day floating back and forth with the tide before our doors, in all stages of putrefaction—on some of them crows perched, picking away at their horrid feast.
“Go where you would through the streets, we would meet men bearing away the dead, hastily tied up in a coarse mat. The Siamese make loud lamentation at the moment of the death of friends, and as one would pass along it was no uncommon thing to hear the voice of wailing from this house and that. Once on my way to see a patient, the voice of one crying in great distress induced me to enter the little bamboo dwelling, whence the cry proceeded; and there on the mat-covered platform of a gambler’s shop (for such it was) sat a middle-aged Chinaman with his head against the wall, sobbing at a piteous rate. He took no notice of my entrance; but, telling his only comrade that I was a doctor, I stepped up to him to feel his pulse, but he was pulseless and his limbs cold as stone—the hand of death was upon him. And I went on my way leaving him all heedless of my coming, crying bitterly as before.
“The most revolting spectacles were at the watts where Siamese custom requires the dead to be brought for burning or interment till burning is possible.... I have seen in one of these gehennas hundreds of loathsome corpses in every stage of putrefaction lying around unburied, unburned just where the hirelings that brought them or their friends, too poor to pay the expense of their burning, might throw them down—the hot sun and the rain doing its work awfully.... My own eyes have seen of such human carcasses, sixty thrown together in one huge pile with sufficiency of wood and over thirty in a smaller one near, all roasting, frying and burning to ashes with a thick black smoke going up from the dreadful pyre; with skull bones, legs half consumed, arms stiff in death projecting on this side and that as the pile settled down, till the men in charge with long poles would thrust and twist them back into the blazing heap. All day long, from an area of nearly an acre covered with the ashes of other freshly burned victims of the pestilence, would be continually going up the flames of scores of individual funeral piles; and this not on the grounds of one temple only, but from a dozen here and there about the city. And then when evening came, with the night air would be wafted to us such an unmistakable odor of burning flesh and singeing hair and bones.”
In the midst of his heroic labours, Dr. House awoke one morning with what he felt to be the symptoms of the cholera, and for a time he had dire thoughts of a certain and speedy death; but instant resort to his effective prescription and a quiet rest in bed for two days averted the threatened disease. Then he promptly resumed attendance upon patients. When it is considered that his professional services were sought in only a few instances, chiefly among the friends of the mission servants, and that his own aggressive zeal increased the number of patients treated by him, the heroism of his conduct stands out in bold relief. Even though there was no place of refuge for the missionaries, had it been possible for them to flee, yet their greatest security was to remain in such isolation as possible within their premises. But Dr. House’s eagerness to save the lives of men that they might have a further chance to hear the Gospel impelled him to risk his own life to minister to every victim who would receive his services.
Concerning the prescription used during this epidemic, Dr. House published a report of his experiments, while in America in 1865, when there was prospect of an outbreak of Asiatic cholera in the United States. At first he began with the common prescription of the medical books of that date; then he turned to the use of calomel in very large doses, with better results; later he says that he hit upon the use of a mixture of spirits of camphor and water taken every few minutes and found this to be a specific for the disease, losing no patients under this treatment provided the attack was taken in time.
In general, however, he was handicapped by two difficulties. The disease made its attack so suddenly and developed so rapidly that unless remedies were applied at the earliest possible moment the end was fatal; but to many of the cases to which he came, the summons of the physician had been delayed until there was no hope of saving life. The other difficulty was equally fatal; utter heedlessness to the directions. No amount of caution seemed sufficient to secure the imperative attention to the prescription. One patient, with a mild attack, he found to be dying when he called later; and upon investigation found that she had taken the medicine once when she should have taken it twenty times, but in the meantime had resorted to the powders of a native doctor. But in spite of these obstacles, Dr. House reported that of eight or ten really severe cases in the households of the missionaries, none died, and that he had records of seventy or more cures of persons elsewhere dangerously attacked.
The mortality of this plague of ’49 was frightful. During the climax of the epidemic deaths were occurring at the rate of fifteen hundred a day in Bangkok. The river was thick with floating bodies, and vessels coming in reported that they had counted hundreds of corpses floated by the tide seven days out to sea. When the plague had at last abated the official estimate of the number of deaths in Bangkok and vicinity during the seven months was not fewer than forty thousand.
A CURIOUS MARK OF ROYAL GRATITUDE
The episode of the plague had rather a curious conclusion. When the pestilence had spent its force, King Phra Chao Pravat Thong decided that he would perform an “act of merit” in honour of Buddha for the cessation of the epidemic. Since the religion of Buddha requires great veneration for the life of animals one of the surest means to merit is to grant freedom to animals that are in captivity. Accordingly a levy was made upon every citizen to bring to the palace ground a stated number of animals or birds during a fixed period, and upon a given day these were all to be liberated at the king’s command. To the surprise of the foreigners residing in Bangkok, they in common with the citizens received a demand for a gift of pigs and fowls and ducks in varying numbers and assortments.