THE REMEDIES OF NATURE. 485 



hardly ever attacks the same person more than once. Ague, on the 

 contrary, recurs with the return of every favorable opportunity ; nay, 

 persons who have suffered most from remittent fevers are especially 

 liable to relapses, and, if the disease is allowed to continue, its result is 

 the same impoverishment of the blood (chlorosis and jaundice) which 

 the paroxysm of yellow fever effects in a few hours. It is not safe to 

 count upon an early frost, or immediate relief by a change of climate 

 (in midsummer, especially, when the weather is often as warm at the 

 borders of the Arctic Circle as fifty degrees farther south). And the 

 persistent neglect of dietetic precautions under reliance on the prophy- 

 lactic effect of a weekly dose of quinine would be strictly analogous 

 to an attempt to legalize the sins of Don Juan by saturating the sys- 

 tem with mercury. 



In yellow fever large doses of quinine directly increase the chief 

 danger of the disease by arresting the excretion of uric acid, which, 

 passing into the circulation, has been recognized as a main cause of 

 the convulsions and coma which so often inaugurate the hopeless 

 stage of the deliquium. 



During the delirious paroxysms of climatic fevers, ice-water may be 

 administered like medicine, by spoonfuls, but solid food should never 

 be forced upon the patient. "When coolness, sweetness, and fruity fla- 

 vors can not make a dish acceptable to the appetite, its obtrusion upon 

 the stomach would do more harm than good, and it is a great mis- 

 take to suppose that even total abstinence could in such cases aggra- 

 vate the danger of the disease. At San Nazaro, near Brescia, the 

 Austrian hospital-town after the battle of Solferino, a wounded Hun- 

 garian sergeant, whose three tent-comrades had died of typhus synco- 

 palis (" spotted fever "), cured himself of the same disease by an abso- 

 lute fast of eight days, not including the two days of his transport 

 from the battle-field, when he had taken a cup of coffee and a mouth- 

 ful of bread. In malignant cases of yellow fever the revulsions of the 

 bowels often invert the digestive process for days together ; chyle, as 

 well as the nutritive elements of the blood, are forced back upon the 

 stomach and disgorged in that eruption of cruor commonly called the 

 "black-vomit " ; and the ingestion of food would, under such circum- 

 stances, only aggravate the gastric distress. 



With the power of assimilation, the appetite for solid nourishment 

 gradually returns ; but this re-establishment of the digestive process 

 is greatly retarded by the obtrusion of a distasteful diet, especially 

 animal food and all greasy made-dishes. The peculiar dietetic whims 

 of fever-patients, their sudden cravings for a special kind of food, 

 drink, or condiment, can with certain exceptions (or the revival of an 

 alcohol passion) be indulged without danger, and generally indicate a 

 favorable turn of the crisis. " Ya se va a volver ; pide chile " " He'll 

 soon be all right ; he's asking for chile " (red pepper or pepper-sauce) 

 is a standing form of congratulation among the Spanish- American 



