My friend was especially interested in the lad--won his
confidence and affection by acts of kindness--and so improved his bodily
health as to justify some hope of also improving the state of his mind,
when a misfortune occurred which has altered the whole prospect. The
poor creature has fallen ill of a fever, and the fever has developed to
typhus. So far, there has been little to interest you--I am coming to
a remarkable event at last. At the stage of the fever when delirium
usually occurs in patients of sound mind, this crazy French boy has
become perfectly sane and reasonable!"
I looked at him, when he made this amazing assertion, with a momentary
doubt of his being in earnest. Doctor Wybrow understood me.
"Just what I thought, too, when I first heard it!" he said. "My friend
was neither offended nor surprised. After inviting me to go to his
house, and judge for myself, he referred me to a similar case, publicly
cited in the 'Cornhill Magazine,' for the month of April, 1879, in an
article entitled 'Bodily Illness as a Mental Stimulant.
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