Chronicles of Notre Dame du Lac
Edward Sorin, CSC -- Translated by John M. Toohey, CSC, 1895

---

1854

pg 204                                   1855 March
                  For some months maladies had diminished but not disappeared.  
             Such was the enfeebled condition of the members at the end of 
             autumn that the least fatigue or the first unforeseen change sent 
             back to the infirmary even those that were thought to have 
             entirely recovered.  But at the beginning of the month of March 
             several cases of bilious fever assumed such a malignant character 
             that there were grave fears of a return to the scourge of the 
             previous September and October.
                  Mr. Devos, one of the professors of the college, a novice of 
             the Society of Priests, a young Belgian of great talents and of 
             much promise, was amongst the first attacked.  For several months 
             the Institution had, at great expense, secured the services of a 
             distinguished physician, Dr. McKinnis, a graduate of Paris and of 
             Glasgow, who at the same time filled two of the most important 
             chairs at the university.
                  Under the care of this doctor Mr. Devos, like everybody else, 
             thought himself comparatively safe during the first ten days of 
             his malady.  But it soon became only too evident that he was going 
             to die, as he did on the thirteenth day of his malady.