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Chekhov -
Ward No. 6
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V A strange rumour!
Dr. Andrey Yefimitch Ragin is a strange man in his way. They say
that when he was young he was very religious, and prepared
himself for a clerical career, and that when he had finished his
studies at the high school in 1863 he intended to enter a
theological academy, but that his father, a surgeon and doctor
of medicine, jeered at him and declared point-blank that he
would disown him if he became a priest. How far this is true I
don't know, but Andrey Yefimitch himself has more than once
confessed that he has never had a natural bent for medicine or
science in general.
However that may have been, when he finished his studies in the
medical faculty he did not enter the priesthood. He showed no
special devoutness, and was no more like a priest at the
beginning of his medical career than he is now.
His exterior is heavy -- coarse like a peasant's, his face, his
beard, his flat hair, and his coarse, clumsy figure, suggest an
overfed, intemperate, and harsh innkeeper on the highroad. His
face is surly-looking and covered with blue veins, his eyes are
little and his nose is red. With his height and broad shoulders
he has huge hands and feet; one would think that a blow from his
fist would knock the life out of anyone, but his step is soft,
and his walk is cautious and insinuating; when he meets anyone
in a narrow passage he is always the first to stop and make way,
and to say, not in a bass, as one would expect, but in a high,
soft tenor: "I beg your pardon!" He has a little swelling on his
neck which prevents him from wearing stiff starched collars, and
so he always goes about in soft linen or cotton shirts.
Altogether he does not dress like a doctor. He wears the same
suit for ten years, and the new clothes, which he usually buys
at a Jewish shop, look as shabby and crumpled on him as his old
ones; he sees patients and dines and pays visits all in the same
coat; but this is not due to niggardliness, but to complete
carelessness about his appearance.
When Andrey Yefimitch came to the town to take up his duties the
"institution founded to the glory of God" was in a terrible
condition. One could hardly breathe for the stench in the wards,
in the passages, and in the courtyards of the hospital. The
hospital servants, the nurses, and their children slept in the
wards together with the patients. They complained that there was
no living for beetles, bugs, and mice. The surgical wards were
never free from erysipelas. There were only two scalpels and not
one thermometer in the whole hospital; potatoes were kept in the
baths. The superintendent, the housekeeper, and the medical
assistant robbed the patients, and of the old doctor, Andrey
Yefimitch's predecessor, people declared that he secretly sold
the hospital alcohol, and that he kept a regular harem
consisting of nurses and female patients. These disorderly
proceedings were perfectly well known in the town, and were even
exaggerated, but people took them calmly; some justified them on
the ground that there were only peasants and working men in the
hospital, who could not be dissatisfied, since they were much
worse off at home than in the hospital -- they couldn't be fed
on woodcocks! Others said in excuse that the town alone, without
help from the Zemstvo, was not equal to maintaining a good
hospital; thank God for having one at all, even a poor one. And
the newly formed Zemstvo did not open infirmaries either in the
town or the neighbourhood, relying on the fact that the town
already had its hospital.
After looking over the hospital Andrey Yefimitch came to the
conclusion that it was an immoral institution and extremely
prejudicial to the health of the townspeople. In his opinion the
most sensible thing that could be done was to let out the
patients and close the hospital. But he reflected that his will
alone was not enough to do this, and that it would be useless;
if physical and moral impurity were driven out of one place,
they would only move to another; one must wait for it to wither
away of itself Besides, if people open a hospital and put up
with having it, it must be because they need it; superstition
and all the nastiness and abominations of daily life were
necessary, since in process of time they worked out to something
sensible, just as manure turns into black earth. There was
nothing on earth so good that it had not something nasty about
its first origin.
When Andrey Yefimitch undertook his duties he was apparently not
greatly concerned about the irregularities at the hospital. He
only asked the attendants and nurses not to sleep in the wards,
and had two cupboards of instruments put up; the superintendent,
the housekeeper, the medical assistant, and the erysipelas
remained unchanged.
Andrey Yefimitch loved intelligence and honesty intensely, but
he had no strength of will nor belief in his right to organize
an intelligent and honest life about him. He was absolutely
unable to give orders, to forbid things, and to insist. It
seemed as though he had taken a vow never to raise his voice and
never to make use of the imperative. It was difficult for him to
say. "Fetch" or "Bring"; when he wanted his meals he would cough
hesitatingly and say to the cook, "How about tea?. . ." or "How
about dinner? . . ." To dismiss the superintendent or to tell
him to leave off stealing, or to abolish the unnecessary
parasitic post altogether, was absolutely beyond his powers.
When Andrey Yefimitch was deceived or flattered, or accounts he
knew to be cooked were brought him to sign, he would turn as red
as a crab and feel guilty, but yet he would sign the accounts.
When the patients complained to him of being hungry or of the
roughness of the nurses, he would be confused and mutter
guiltily: "Very well, very well, I will go into it later. . . .
Most likely there is some misunderstanding. . ."
At first Andrey Yefimitch worked very zealously. He saw patients
every day from morning till dinner-time, performed operations,
and even attended confinements. The ladies said of him that he
was attentive and clever at diagnosing diseases, especially
those of women and children. But in process of time the work
unmistakably wearied him by its monotony and obvious
uselessness. To-day one sees thirty patients, and to-morrow they
have increased to thirty-five, the next day forty, and so on
from day to day, from year to year, while the mortality in the
town did not decrease and the patients did not leave off coming.
To be any real help to forty patients between morning and dinner
was not physically possible, so it could but lead to deception.
If twelve thousand patients were seen in a year it meant, if one
looked at it simply, that twelve thousand men were deceived. To
put those who were seriously ill into wards, and to treat them
according to the principles of science, was impossible, too,
because though there were principles there was no science; if he
were to put aside philosophy and pedantically follow the rules
as other doctors did, the things above all necessary were
cleanliness and ventilation instead of dirt, wholesome
nourishment instead of broth made of stinking, sour cabbage, and
good assistants instead of thieves; and, indeed, why hinder
people dying if death is the normal and legitimate end of
everyone? What is gained if some shop-keeper or clerk lives an
extra five or ten years? If the aim of medicine is by drugs to
alleviate suffering, the question forces itself on one: why
alleviate it? In the first place, they say that suffering leads
man to perfection; and in the second, if mankind really learns
to alleviate its sufferings with pills and drops, it will
completely abandon religion and philosophy, in which it has
hitherto found not merely protection from all sorts of trouble,
but even happiness. Pushkin suffered terrible agonies before his
death, poor Heine lay paralyzed for several years; why, then,
should not some Andrey Yefimitch or Matryona Savishna be ill,
since their lives had nothing of importance in them, and would
have been entirely empty and like the life of an amoeba except
for suffering?
Oppressed by such reflections, Andrey Yefimitch relaxed his
efforts and gave up visiting the hospital every day.
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