Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 44.djvu/542

This page has been validated.
528
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

gives me no truce or rest, and concerning which I have consulted all the specialists in the world." He traveled in this way through Poland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, England, and other countries.

At last the fame of the school of the Salpêtrière drew Moses to Paris during the year 1892. He made his appearance in a shabby costume, wearing a long black frock-coat, worn and patched. His mien was that of a Polish Jew. The thin face, with hollow features, was buried in a full, untrimmed beard, curling at the sides; the thick hair fell over his ears and upon the nape of his neck in greasy ringlets; his high, round forehead was crossed by deep wrinkles; his heavy eyebrows came together over the nose with two very marked folds, which gave the physiognomy an expression of pain and attention; his long, hooked nose hung over thick lips; a deep wrinkle separated it from his cheeks, and Fig. 4.—Moser B——, or Moses, an Israelite, Neuropathic Wanderer. was so mobile that one never knew whether he was going to laugh or cry. He was acquainted with English, Turkish, Russian, and Hebrew, but generally spoke German. When he was admitted into M. Charcot's office, he began a long story of his troubles, and drew out a detailed list of the symptoms he felt, and began to read it. At times he would describe his sufferings with something like enthusiasm; then he would suddenly break out into an affecting lamentation over them. When a course of treatment was suggested to him, he assumed an air of attention; then, gradually, a smile would light up his face, and he would shake his head with a skeptical air, saying that he had tried all that with no success. Moses stayed a year in Paris, receiving electrical treatment; then, finding that of not much effect, he went away in search of a cure that could not be found.