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DEPARTURE FROM BREMEN.

111

ney were nearly completed, when he was suddenly attacked by a disease of the eye, which almost destroyed his sight. The utmost skill of the two most celebrated homoeopathists in Bremen did him no good. He passed four months in a darkened chamber, suffering the most excruciating agony, and deprived of all enjoyment, save that of being read to, or talked to, from morning until night.

Thus, day after day, each wearier and sadder than the preceding, passed on, though his affliction was borne with an almost feminine patience. He seemed to rally periodically, and then sink into his former state. During one of these intervals, I persuaded him to attempt a journey to Paris, in the hope that he might obtain more efficient medical advice. Our preparations were rapidly made for fear of a relapse. It was De

cember; the weather was intensely cold, the travelling worse than at any other period of the year; yet we set out with Indian courage. The journey was accomplished in, I think, three days.

Paris.

CHAPTER VI.

Unexpected Friends.

Visit to Hahnemann. Mrs. Hahnemann. - Her History. New Physicians. — Recovery of Sight. Parisian Gayeties.-- Description of Ball at Colonel T―n's. The Carnival, General C——————ss. Rachel and her Sisters. Facilities of Education in France. ·American Copy of Parisian Manners. Male and female Politicians. Louis Philippe. - St. Germain Society. Place de la Concorde. Place Vendome. Place du Carrousel. - Fountains. Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile. Tuileries. Les Champs Elysées. - Bois de Boulogne. ·Studies resumed. Play for private Representation commenced. - Scenery painted in Paris. Sailing for America.

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MOST sad was our entrance into that metropolis, where the heart of the great world is said to beat with its merriest pulsations. The strength of our invalid was completely exhausted, and scarcely had we reached Paris when he became dangerously ill. To have delivered the letters of mere fashionable introduction with which we were abundantly supplied, would at that moment have been a mockery. We should have been desolate indeed, had not friends sprung up around us in the kind relatives of a French brother-in-law. He was the husband of that sister who first won Mr. Mowatt's admiration, and who has long since gone to the "better land."

The mother and sisters of Mr. G- were women of high refinement and most lovable character. They at once devoted themselves to lightening our cares for the sick, and cheering us by their agreeable society.

VISIT TO HAHNEMANN.

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Mr. Mowatt, however, resisted all persuasions to place himself in the hands of their family physician. His prejudices were in favor of homoeopathy. Hahnemann was then residing in Paris, and if the new science could yield balm for the invalid's affliction, we might seek it at the fountain head.

Hahnemann, at that period, had become too feeble to visit his patients. He received them at his own residence. Mr. Mowatt being confined to his bed, the duty of calling upon the learned doctor, and of minutely describing the case, devolved upon me.

It was scarcely nine o'clock when I entered Hahnemann's magnificent mansion; but his saloons were already crowded, and one o'clock struck before I gained an audience. A valet, in gaudy livery, who had taken my card some four hours before, then approached, and informed me that I would now be received into the consultation chamber. I followed him through a succession of apartments, all richly furnished, and embellished with numberless busts of Hahnemann, of various sizes. A door was thrown open, and I entered the consultation

room.

At the head of a long table sat a lady, dressed in the most recherché demi-toilette, with a gold pen in her hand, and piles of books and papers strewed around her. She might have been forty years old; but I am no judge of ages. Her form was finely rounded, and her face still fresh and handsome. Her brow was remarkably high, and the hair, thrown back from her temples, fell in long, light curls upon her shoul lers. Her complexion was brilliantly clear, and her blue eyes had a deeply-thoughtful expression. She rose to receive me, and it was not until she resumed her seat that a

shrivelled, little, old man became visible.

He was

reclining in a sumptuous arm chair, with a black velvet skullcap on his head, and in his mouth a richly-enamelled pipe, that reached almost to his knees. IIis face reminded me of a ruddy apple that had been withered by the frost; but the small, dark eyes, deeply set in his head, could scarcely have glittered with more brilliancy in his lusty youth. As I took the seat which Mrs. Hahnemann designated, he noticed me with a look rather than a bow, and removing the pipe from his mouth, deliberately sent a volume of smoke across the table probably in token of greeting.

Mrs. Hahnemann addressed me, and wrote down my answers to her numerous questions; but at the conclusion of the interview declined prescribing, until the invalid made the effort to appear in person. Hahnemann sat puffing away as though his existence depended upon the amount of smoke with which he was surrounded, and apparently intent alone upon his pleasant occupation. But when I spoke of our long visit to Germany, he suddenly took the pipe from his mouth. Sprechen sie Deutsche ?" were the first words he addressed to me.

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I had only to utter "Ya wohl," when a species of Promethean fire seemed to shoot through the veins of the smoking automaton; he laid down his pipe, and commenced an animated conversation in his own language.

He spoke of Germany and her institutions with enthusiasm; asked me many questions concerning America, and expressed his admiration of the few Americans with whom he was acquainted. As soon as politeness. permitted, I led back the subject to the point from

MRS. HAHNEMANN.

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which we had originally started Mr. Mowatt's illness in Germany. At the first medical question, the pipe returned to its former position, the expanded countenance shrivelled up again, the distended muscles relaxed, the erect form sank back into a withered heap, and was quickly enveloped in smoke - he was the wearied-out old man again. Mrs. Hahnemann answered my question with much suavity, and then gracefully rose. This was her signal of dismission. I promised to return with the patient as soon as possible. She touched a silver bell, the door was thrown open, and the liveried valet escorted me to my carriage.

I afterwards heard the history of Mrs. Hahnemann. She had been cured by her husband of a disease which other physicians pronounced necessarily fatal. Through gratitude, she bestowed her hand upon the man who had saved her life. Her husband taught her the science of medicine. She made rapid progress, and he soon pronounced his wife as skilful a physician as himself. When he became infirm, his practice was left almost entirely in her hands.

A few days after the first visit, I returned, accompanied by Mr. Mowatt. Again we had to wait several hours in the antechambers; and, when admitted, the interview was unsatisfactory. After but a short trial of the medicines prescribed, his sufferings were so intense that homoeopathy was abandoned, and Madame G's family physician called in. Four months passed on and brought no relief. But succor came at last from the hands of an eminent American surgeon, Dr. M -tt, of New York. One fortnight from the day when he first undertook the case, Mr. Mowatt was able to exchange his darkened chamber for our lightly

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