Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: illness. The old lady spent the day in the sickroom—she had been in attendance upon her daughter day and night since she came—and went down to tea with Dr. Pritchard and the family in the dining-room at seven o'clock, after which she wrote some letters in the consulting-room and sent Mary M'Leod out to get sausages for her supper. She then went upstairs to her daughter's bedroom, which ehe had shared since her arrival— Dr. Pritchard occupying the spare bedroom. A few minutes later the bell rang violently, and the servants, on going up, found Mrs. Taylor sitting in a chair very ill and trying to be eick. Hot water was brought to effect this, but to no purpose; she quickly became unconscious, and sat with her head hanging down upon her breast. Dr. Pritchard was summoned, and, having examined her, he told the boarder Connell to go for Dr. Paterson, as Mra Taylor had been seized with apoplexy and was seriously ill. Accordingly, shortly after ten o'clock, Dr. Pateraon appeared in that chamber of death. It was the first time he had been in the house, and the result of his visit, and the course which he saw fit to adopt in regard to it, are among the most remarkable features of this case. Dr. Pritchard met Dr. Paterson in the hall, and told him that the old lady, while writing some letters, had fallen from her chair in a fit, and had been carried upstairs to her bedroom. He added that "she was in the habit of taking a drop"—a deliberate and wicked lie—and ,said that Mrs. Pritchard had been ill for a long time with gastric fever. Dr. Pateraon then proceeded to the sickroom. Mrs. Taylor, who had been lifted on to her daughter's bed, was still alive; but he at once expressed his opinion that she was dying under the influence of some powerful narcotic. He attempted to rouse her, and, a de...