The river rose over 50 feet in a surprising short time and half the city was under water. One morning, early, I was taken to see a patient in a boat. You are rowed in through the front door of the house and jump on to a plank of doors moored to the staircase. A girl was lying on a bed in a well furnished upstairs room. A young man with a shrivelled yellow face, and well made foreign clothes hanging from him like the rags of a scarecrow, led me in and explained that the patient had swallowed opium three hours before. Even while we were speaking the girl began to froth at the mouth and her pulse and respiration showed that she was beyond all hope of human aid. On another bed I saw a whole opium paraphernalia and lamp burning. I pointed this out and said to the distracted man, "If you hadn't got that in the house this tragedy couldn't have happened!" As I was speaking_I recognized him as an old -friend of 14. years
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