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I found that the child had contracted the disease from another
about her own age, who was both her playmate and her slave. It is
the custom among the wealthy to purchase for each daughter a
companion who plays with her as a child, becomes a companion in
youth and her maid when she marries. These slaves are usually
treated well, and when this one became ill the members of the
family visited her often, taking her such dainties as might tempt
her appetite. As a result I had to administer antitoxin to eight
of the younger members of the household, so careless had they
been about the spread of this disease; indeed I have found that
the isolation of patients suffering from contagious diseases is
wholly unknown in China.
One of the most attractive of all my Chinese lady friends and
patients is the niece of the great Viceroy, Li Hung-chang, the
daughter of his brother, Li Han-chang, who is himself a viceroy.
I have been her physician for eighteen years or more and hence
have become intimately acquainted with her. She has visited me
very often in my home and, of all the women I have ever known, of
any race or people, I have never met one whom I thought more
cultured or refined than she. This may seem a strange statement,
but the quiet dignity that she manifested on all occasions and
her charming manners are not often met with. I have never felt on
entering a drawing-room such an atmosphere of refinement as
seemed to surround her
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