Sullivan letter diary, 27 October 1915-9 October 1917 / Eugene Sullivan - Page 85
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[Page 85]
inquiring when his meals would arrive. He got a great shock, when, in accordance with the diet for his supposed complaint, he only got milk.
We gave him a special glass to spit in so as to catch all the blood. He made valiant efforts during the morning to extract some tinge of blood from himself by rubbing and pulling at his nose, when he was detected in this he subsequently managed somehow to spit up a little blood. On inquiry we found that some of the men had seen him digging at his gums with a wooden match. When taxed with this he absolutely denied it and swore black and blue that it had come from his lungs.
Three of us thought we would scare the truth out of him so that afternoon we donned operating gowns and looking as serious as possible we marched up to him carrying a tray of instruments and bowls of disinfectant &c. and commenced to straighten up his bed and then cleaned up his side with disinfectant methelated spirits. We told him we intended to insert a probe in his side to test whether his lung was there or not. After making all these preparations we informed him it was too rough to operate that afternoon. He did not appear much frightened but that night he confessed the whole matter to the doctor, admitting that he had dug at his gums until they bled. Thank goodness we have no more specimens like him.