34 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



to a considerable extent. I at first thought that 

 amputation would be inevitable, but to mutilate a 

 workman's right hand is much the same as to deprive 

 him of his daily bread. Everything ought to be 

 risked in order to avoid such a fearful calamity. 

 Although I needed the most indispensable objects 

 for regularly dressing a finger in this state, I did my 

 best, and my attempts were crowned with unexpected 

 success. At the end of three weeks the wound had 

 cicatrised, and Master Balue preserved the use of his 

 finger. 



Certes ! this was a case in which I might have 

 exclaimed with our great Ambrose Pare, *^ I treated 

 him, God healed him." The case nevertheless won 

 for me a prodigious reputation on the island. As, 

 moreover, my advice was given gratuitously, it was 

 not long before I was assailed with consultations. 

 One might almost have thought that the good people 

 of Chausey availed themselves of the opportunity to 

 be ill. It was not enough, however, to prescribe for 

 them, it was equally necessary to make up my pre- 

 scriptions ; and this embarrassed me not a little at first, 

 for, although tavern-keepers are to be met with at 

 Chausey, the islands cannot yet boast of a druggist. 

 Happily for me, the flora of the island came to my 

 aid, by furnishing me with the principal elements of 

 my materia medica. With the help of mallow, 

 which grows abundantly over all the archipelago, I 

 was at no loss to prepare cataplasms and emollient 

 tisanes ; docks, borage, peppermint and wild-thyme 

 served me in the place of other tonic, sudorific, and 

 stimulant agents. Whenever any more decidedly 



