488 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



" unshortened " bread, fruit, or fruit-jelly, constitute the dietetic specif- 

 ics for convalescents from climatic fevers. Subacid fruits are, on the 

 whole, more cooling than purely saccharine ones (figs, for instance) ; 

 but bananas, though sweetish rather than acid, are, par excellence, an 

 anti-fever food, being refreshing, palatable, and nutritive, as well as 

 exceedingly digestible. Oranges, biscuits, and cold water, during the 

 critical stage of the disease milk, bread, and bananas, after the crisis 

 is past ought to be the standard regimen in our semi-tropical seaport 

 towns ; inland and farther north substituting pears or baked apples, 

 and perhaps sweet-potatoes, for bananas, and watermelons for oranges. 

 A frugal diet has the further advantage of obviating the tendency to 

 fretfulness and splenetic humors which results from the use of ani- 

 mal food in indigestible quantities, i. e., in hot weather from a very 

 moderate quantum. In midsummer, persons of a " nervous temper " 

 could often cure their disposition by a change of diet. Mental energy 

 exercises a remarkable influence on the idiopathic symptoms of cli- 

 matic fevers. Pluck is a febrifuge. Men of exceptional will-force, 

 or under the stimulus of an exceptional enthusiasm, contrive to hold 

 the foe at bay ; they keep on their legs till their work is done, even 

 though the presence of a febrile diathesis continues to manifest itself 

 by indirect symptoms. During the carnival of chaos following the 

 end of our civil war and preceding the collapse of the Mexican " Em- 

 pire," the Sheriff of Cameron County, Texas, undertook to escort a 

 Mexican prisoner across the Rio Grande, in order to save him from a 

 mob who unjustly but obstinately accused him of complicity in the 

 " Cortina riot." It was a ticklish job, but the sheriff, though pros- 

 trated by a malignant ague and almost blind from the use of quinine, 

 declined to intrust his protege to a deputy, and preferred to rely on 

 luck and his reputation as a "dead shot." Like most pistol virtuosos 

 he was able to fire off-hand, and was confident that no shakiness would 

 interfere with the accuracy of his aim, but was rather uneasy on ac- 

 count of his impaired eyesight. But on the morning of the critical 

 day his fever left him, together with all sequela? and concomitant 

 symptoms, and he returned, with the conviction that the expedition 

 had saved his own life as well as that of his prisoner. 



Even scientific enthusiasm may exercise a similar prophylactic 

 effect, and has supported more than one African explorer and East 

 Indian officer whom no quinine could have saved from the combined 

 influence of solar and animal heat. The trouble is, that the effect is 

 so apt to subside with the cause : heroes and explorers who survive 

 a summer campaign in the wilderness die upon the return to their 

 comfortable winter quarters. The fate of Sir Stamford Raffles is a 

 melancholy instance : A naturalist, a patriot, and a zealous philanthro- 

 pist, his triple enthusiasm carried him safely through the swampiest 

 regions of the Sunda Archipelago, and, as long as his expedition re- 

 quired his personal presence, Fortune seemed to favor him in every 



