Chapter 1
It was but early fall, but the air was crisp of nights - and it was night, after ten o'clock. The man up ahead was shivering despite his heavy traveler's coat. "Ill," thought young Cochran (he was studying medicine); then, "a foreigner, unused to our climate." A second look had told him the man was.. well, something exotic, anyways - Asiatic, perhaps, or half so. Curiosity piqued, Cochran wondered if he would be able to strike up a conversation, or if he dared. As he drew closer, however, his first impression of illness returned - the traveller's face was drawn, stretched, even, over the aquiline nose and cheekbones; the dark skin
First Do No Harm part 2 by mooncustafer, literature
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First Do No Harm part 2
Chapter 2
Lectures and Libations
A month into term, the exotic Jennings no longer drew stares - but neither were most of his students or fellows on easy terms with him. His colour, his formality, the subtle impression of of ill health, but most of all the gentle yet terrible genius that looked out of those dark eyes silently forbade any kind of familiarity. Even Cochran, who had taken a shy, dogged liking to the lecturer, had never quite lost the awe and discomfort that their first meeting had inspired.
One sodden afternoon in the operating theatre, when the smell of lamp oil and students close-packed in damp wool obfuscated any impression
First Do No Harm part 3 by mooncustafer, literature
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First Do No Harm part 3
Chapter 3
M----- College, being nothing if not a practical institution, and wishing to expose its students to real experience as soon as possible in their careers, so that they should waste no time in discovery if they were not cut out to be medical men, not only ran a charitable clinic in town, but sent certain of the professors, students in tow, to visit the outlying farms and homes. Jennings did not go visiting; his first few visits had proven how uneasy he made the local folk. Cochran usually accompanied Dr. Burree, but come October the anatomy professor was laid up with an attack of rheumaticks, and the student was left to take over his
First Do No Harm part 4 by mooncustafer, literature
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First Do No Harm part 4
Chapter 4: Extract from the diary of Ezra Jennings
October 17th, 1840.
Sky a chill bright blue, neither the deep blue sky of my childhood nor the grey sky of my father's homeland, but a sharp blue, well-suited to this rough young country.
Dr. Burree seemed to be recovering last night, and I decreased his dose to forty drops, but today he is in agonies again. Must learn to neither under- nor over-estimate an elderly man's powers of recovery. Meanwhile, Dr. Ashton, in taking charge of the Watts case, has managed the feat of taking credit for Cochran's report while rejecting it entirely - declares the cataplexy, etc, to be merely (merely!) sy
First Do No Harm part 5 by mooncustafer, literature
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First Do No Harm part 5
Chapter 5 - The Very Secret Journal of Elizabeth Anne Watts, in the Fourteenth Yr of her Age
In 1873, workers replacing the wainscotting in a wing of M- College found a tiny bound volume, scarcely two inches along the spine.
Entries for October - November, 1840, appear below:
October 17th Dr. Burree is unwell so he sent his student Mr. Cochran when I fell, but he is not a proper doctor yet so when I told him about not being able to move he went and got Dr. Ashton, who says it is my recurrent illness getting worse and had me moved to the hospital. Auntie cried and will visit.
October 18th. Hospital, Day 1 Woke in the night and there was a
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First Do No Harm part 6
Chapter 6
It was dusk, and the day of Lizzie Watts' death. The hard frosts had come, and noone ventured outdoors after dark without a purpose, save Cochran and Jennings, who shared a common craving for the quiet found in the bitterly clear night. They were walking between the road and the College when the shorter figure stopped in his tracks and swore hard at the ground with his fists clenched. Jennings stood waiting in silence a few paces ahead; he watched his colleague until the latter's burst of emotion had quieted, then placed a hand on his shoulder. Cochran's head snapped up and his blue eyes blazed into those of the older man:
"They s
First Do No Harm part 7 by mooncustafer, literature
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First Do No Harm part 7
Chapter 7
That night after finishing their evening rounds, they returned to Jennings' quarters, and drank strong coffee, made over a spirit lamp, in silence for an hour, until Jennings tilted his head towards the small high window.
"It's dark enough now for any piece of work." Reluctantly they pulled on their coats; they slunk down the stairs like hunted men; the lock on the morgue was as easy a toy as ever; the tools as carelessly strewn about. Cochrane's stomach pulled into a harder knot as their light fell on a huddled, shrouded figure at the foot of a table. Together, with numb fingers they lifted the bundle of calico that either could