Turgenev was terribly afraid of cholera and often remarked on fresh outbreaks in his letters, describing in detail the situation in Paris and other European cities, asking after affairs in Russia, noting that people were dying like flies, reflecting how f

Turgenev was terribly afraid of cholera and often remarked on fresh outbreaks in his letters, describing in detail the situation in Paris and other European cities, asking after affairs in Russia, noting that people were dying like flies, reflecting how fortunate it was that nightingales do not catch cholera and can delight us with their singing in a time of universal despair. On one occasion he fell ill himself, having stayed the night at Herzen's, and bore the illness very badly, all but departing for the next world, of which there is a rather piquant sketch in Turgenev's letter to Pauline Viardot:

"As for the cholera, if I dared... Well, never mind, I shall venture it. Be it known to you, then, that in this illness one is repeatedly given enemas. In that merry land of France they are usually administered by elderly women. And so, when my nurse was ready to perform her mission and I had already "opened my bosom" to her, to my great astonishment, instead of the hard, pointed beak of the well-known bird, I felt that she was inserting a finger... Surprised, almost frightened, I rapidly come to my senses. "What are you doing there, madam?" -- "Ah, monsieur, I always begin with this: I do not see well enough." In the end I had to light the way for her... It was very difficult... I was obliged to pass my arm around her head... Well, what a picture!"