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THE DEATH-DOCTOR

constitutional disturbance, together with an eruption on the surface of the body.

He had noticed it and suggested that Dr. Macdonald, a medical man he had consulted before, and who lived in Paddington, should be called. To this I raised no objection. Therefore, my estimable colleague saw him, made an independent diagnosis, and was much puzzled next day by the eruption which had at first appeared papular and was now assuming a pustular form. He found the nasal mucous membrane secondarily infected, and thence inflammatory swelling was spreading to the tissues of the face.

When we consulted, Macdonald acknowledged himself in complete ignorance of the disease from which the patient was suffering, an ignorance which, of course, I also affected.

As day succeeded day, Macdonald attended him, but he grew no better. His symptoms were of rapid pyƦmia, and on the ninth day Ronald Snell breathed his last, while both Macdonald and his partner, a man named Booth, were, as I expected, utterly at a loss to diagnose the actual disease.

They were unaware that the pin in the young man's suede glove had been infected with a stroke culture I had carefully incubated

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