288 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May 1 



actly obey the doctor's orders. He expressed his 

 opinion in regard to a certain matter, but left it 

 subject to my judgment. I supposed I had 

 about gotten over the grip, and started to do some 

 work. When he came again he said, " Well, 

 sir, you have gripy^-x^^r this time, sure." 



" Do you mean, doctor, that I have got to have 

 a run of fever? Does grip have to have its run 

 like other fevers.'" 



" It generally has a run of ten or twelve days, 

 but we will try to evade it if we can." 



But we did not "evade it." If some one 

 would offer me a thousand dollars to go through 

 again what I did during those ten or twelve days, 

 I would refuse it. If, however, by so doing I 

 might guard or warn somebody else from falling 

 into the same pitfalls, then I might undertake it. 

 Booker Washington tells us in his book that he 

 finally came to a point where he could thank 

 God that he was born black, because now he 

 could do work for his people that he never could 

 have done otherwise; and I hope God will give 

 me grace to be willing to bear affliction when it 

 may be the means of helping some other poor 

 soul to escape. Now, there is a question right 

 here that the doctor did not decide, and that I 

 can not decide. Was it the lot of corky apples 

 that I ate when I was not used to them, that gave 

 me the grip, or was it the grip that prevented the 

 apples from digesting and getting out of the way 

 as they usually do.? Perhaps both together. It 

 was a bad combination. I really did not feel 

 chilly when I was running about after I arrived 

 home; but I think now I was not sufficiently 

 careful to be bundled up with overcoat, fur cap, 

 and thick overshoes, etc., until I became better 

 acclimated. My wife urged heavier undercloth- 

 ing; but as it was then quite warm, I felt sure I 

 did not need it. When the grip fever got its 

 "grip'' on me, every thing was at a standstill. 

 My digestion stopped, my appetite was gone. 

 Let me say briefly, I did not get entirely rid of 

 those undigested apples for nearly two weeks. 

 I have been watching my digestive apparatus 

 closely for years, so I knew what progress things 

 were making; and it was not until that decayed 

 "apple pomace " (for that is what it looked like) 

 was gotten out of the way that I began to get 

 better. Gradually nature began to reject every 

 tiling in the shape of food or nourishment. I 

 tried a baked apple, but it gave me such distress 

 for hours in trying to vomit it up (but couldn't) 

 that I made no more experiments of that kind. 

 I tried a little juice of grape fruit, with perhaps 

 the same result. Nature rejected any thing and 

 every thing. Beef-tea extract, that has always 

 bpen agreeable to me, was simply nauseating. 

 D ly after day passed without a bit of food. The 

 doctor finally said we would have \o force a little 

 nourishment down in some way.* I told him it 

 was no use. 



Let me give you a little illustration. I took a 

 little bit of dry toast in my mouth, and chewed 



' Years ago, while in Portland, Ore., I had a relapse of mala- 

 rial fever. I sent for the best doctor in the city, and he said I 

 must not attempt to take a particle of solid food. I could not di- 

 gest it— take nothins; but milk. I said I could not bear the sight 

 of it. "Then take nothinK at all until you really feel hungry 

 for milk. Nature will let you know when it will do good." At 

 the end of about two days the milk tasted good, and 1 came out 

 all right. With (his i'r/> fe»er there is an objection to milk be- 

 cause of an almost continuous raising of mucus that seems aggra- 

 vated by milk. 



it up \ery fine, thinking nature would certainly 

 furnish a little saliva to start digestion; but the 

 bread seemed like just so much pulverized sand. 

 There was no taste to it. It stayed in my mouth, 

 and would have been an annoyance and trouble 

 if I had not washed it out with water. The 

 stomach seemed to be gone, the gastric juice 

 seemed to be gone. I could not sleep. The 

 minute I shut my eyes the delirium and fever set 

 me almost crazy. I did not even know my own 

 name; and, to add to my troubles, somebody was 

 continually telling me to get out of the way. 

 "They were going to tear the house down to build 

 a railroad there, or something else, and we had 

 to "get out." I tried to maintain it was my 

 own house; but my tormentors laughed in de- 

 rision. Just one little circumstance: Of course, 

 in my mind wanderings I thought of chickens; 

 and when these fellows told me I must begin to 

 get out of the way I called to a bright-looking 

 little girl and said, " Please help me catch the 

 chickens, will you, and put them into the basket 

 carefully.?" And then I chased off after some in 

 another direction. Pretty soon I heard that girl 

 say, " ' Put them into the basket carefully !' this is 

 just the way /do it;" and as she caught one after 

 another she hit it a blow with her fist that crush- 

 ed its little life out. And before I could stop 

 her I heard shriek after shriek of the dying 

 agonies of my little pets. Things like this were 

 being enacted constantly, to provoke my wrath 

 Burglars and highway robbers seemed prowling 

 about everywhere. I looked over the side of my 

 bed, and saw them crawling around in my room. 

 When it was night I counted the minutes before 

 it would be daylight; and when daylight came I 

 longed for the night again. At that time the 

 doctor said, "This mental anguish and torture 

 is the outcome of a lack of food. We must give 

 you nourishment in some way to stop it." 



All this time there was such a nausea in my 

 stomach that I could not bear the thought or 

 sight of food. Said he, " We will make you 

 some beef juice, and you must get it down in 

 some way." They did so; and, oh what joy I 

 felt as nature took hold of the beef juice and be- 

 gan to appropriate it ! Last winter I greatly en- 

 joyed watching the growth of the embryo chicks 

 in the incubator. I saw the blood-vessels push 

 out 80 rapidly that there was quite a change in 

 even a few hours. And then I have seen the em- 

 bryo chick grow until it nearly filled the shell. 

 Well, it seemed to me as if this beif juice took 

 hold and spread off into my blood, and gave me 

 strength and life, just as the chick grew in the 

 shell. They gave me only a few spoonfuls; in 

 an hour or two a little more, and so on as I could 

 bear it. A little later some finely ground broil- 

 ed beef. Of course, this is just the Salisbury 

 treatment of years ago. How memory brought 

 back the time when it was my great privilege to 

 be most intimately acquainted with Dr. Salis- 

 bury, who gave the world the results of his ex- 

 periments and great success in feeding sick peo- 

 ple beef and beef juice!* The beef gave me 

 strength, and speedily raised my hope and spirits; 

 and although several days have passed, as I write. 



* If any of the exponents of vegetable diet can furnish any 

 thing to take the place of beef juice, in cases like this. I shall 

 be glad to bear of it. I have lor years past tested a great lot of 

 the most-lauded invalid foods. 



