In the footsteps of Abraham Ulrikab 20141125 by France Rivet

Author:France Rivet [Rivet, France]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: human zoos, Paris, Germany, France, Inuit, Eskimos, Labrador, Newfoundland-and-Labrador, history, historical, non-fiction, nonfiction, ethnology, anthropology, Johan Adrian Jacobsen, Carl Hagenbeck, Abraham Ulrikab, Rudolf Virchow
Publisher: Polar Horizons Inc.
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Fig. 66 Tigianniak, 1880

Photo by Jacob Martin Jacobsen. (Moravian Archives, Herrnhut)

J. A. Jacobsen’s diary, January 11, 1881:

Today the old Terrianiak was relieved of his sufferings. The bodies are immediately removed to the morgue by the gravediggers and are buried the next morning. Most of the sick are lying in one hall, and the beds are only a few feet apart. Of course, the sexes are segregated. The women have a different hall. Tobias lay next to Terrianiak, and right after he [Tigianniak] died, he [Tobias] got up and covered the corpse with a bed sheet, despite being so sick himself that he could die at any moment.

On margin: I too stood by, but without being able to render any help, apart from perhaps giving the dying a last glass of water. Death is terrible, especially if people die in such huge numbers as here all around me.

On January 13, both Tobias and Abraham passed away. The death register of Hôpital Saint-Louis shows that Tobias died at 2 a.m. in bed No 35 of the isolation section. His was the 17th death to occur at Hôpital Saint-Louis in 1881, and was recorded at noon in the 10th arrondissement’s vital records.

As for Abraham, the death register indicates that he died at 6 p.m. in the bed No 36 of the isolation section. His was the 20th death to occur at Hôpital Saint-Louis in 1881 and was recorded the next day at 2 p.m. in the 10th arrondissement’s vital records.

J. A. Jacobsen’s diary, January 13, 1881:

This morning at 2 o’clock, Tobias died after having suffered terribly. He was brought into the room next to mine yesterday, but the poor guy came into my room again and again. He could no longer speak in the end, because his tongue was so swollen. His face was frightfully distorted, his shirt was bloody all over (they all spat blood in the most horrible way). Since he was much stronger than the others, he had to endure much more than the others.

On margin: It seemed as if Tobias was always seeking help from me, because when the death struggle came, he threw himself upon me, who was lying sick in bed myself, though not with smallpox. With the nurses’ aid we then managed to put the corpse back into the bed of his own.

Right after he was gone, a seriously ill Frenchman was brought into the same room. That poor man also wrestled hard with death. He tore up his sheets and could hardly be restrained. His neck was closed up so that he could not breathe. They virtually suffocate. It is an uncomfortable feeling to be looking at death eye to eye, especially if death is as agonizing as with these unfortunate ones.

On margin: When the death struggle came for the Frenchman, he stretched so violently, that the bedstead tore apart, and the corpse with the mattress came to lie on the floor.

Ulrike has fallen ill, but does not want to be separated from her husband. We partly had to force her to go to bed in a small room.

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