duced. The poison had been communicated
and the plague-spot could not be healed. The alarm became
general, and the sudden death of the two young females served
to awaken public sympathy and public fear. A hospital was
immediately provided in the suburbs of the town, and all the
cases as they occurred sent directly thither, under the sole
care and superintendence of Dr. Page, who alone was chosen
by the Town Council to manage the disease. Some thirty-five
or forty cases were admitted, all of which, by his unwearied
attention and skill, which never slumbered nor slept, passes
harmlessly through the disease. Not a death occurred. Here,
too, a protecting Providence seemed to attend him. His friends
all wondered at the result, and his triumph over detraction
and disease was not less gratifying to himself and family
than to the public generally, and the afflicted inmates who
had safely passed the ordeal of a dangerous and most afflictive
malady.
But what proved harmless to the patient,
was in the end fatal to the friend and physician. His zeal
and assiduity were too much for his constitution and his years.
His long and frequent exposure to the smallpox infection disordered
and weakened his system, and enabled an old enemy--the gout--to
triumph over his usually robust health, and terminate his
life. His illness was long and painful, and his bodily frame
wasted ; but his mind held out to the last pulse of life.
His disease, or rather complications of diseases, was such
as to forbid the hope of recovery--but all was peace within.
His last professional visit was made
about a year previous to his decease, though he prescribed
for patients at various times, and the prescription he wrote
the week before his death, though looking then hourly for
the event, was marked with all the perspicuity and plainness
of his better days. In his greatest paroxysms of distress
no murmur was known to escape his lips, though he often longed
for his departure. On the evening preceding his death, when
the symptoms betokening the coming dissolution, and called
forth the tears and groans of his friends gathered at his
bed-side, it was impressive to hear him say, " Why
grieve immoderately ! all will be well !" And we
trust all is well.
After prayers were offered up for
his quiet passage through the dark valley, with great self-possession
he prayed audibly himself. As he lived, so he died---with
-----------"All
that should accompany old age,
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends."
"Why weep we then for him, who, having won
The bound of man"s appointed years, at last.
Life"s blessings all enjoyed, life"s labors
done,
Serenely to his final rest has passed;
While the soft memory of his virtues yet
Lingers like twilight hues, when the bright sun is set."
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