IMPRESSIONS OF CALIFORNIA 259 



some soup, or would make some tea or coffee for me. In 

 this way I Jed the most miserable existence imaginable, 

 until at last— seeing no prospect of getting better there, 

 but on the contrary, feeling that I was getting weaker 

 and worse every day— I resolved to go again to San 

 Francisco, which I did shortly before Christmas, after 

 having sold my tools and everything I could convert into 

 cash. 



You can imagine in what a miserable, wretched condi- 

 tion I arrived hero, but the complete menial and physical 

 rest, living as I do in a dry, sunny room— I room with 

 Boettcher— and sleeping on a dry mattress, have done 

 wonders for me, the fever left me more than a week ago, 

 and I feel that I am rapidly regaining strength, so that 

 I begin to hope that this terrible sickness, which has kept 

 me down for fully four months, is about to leave me. 



I call this malarial fever a terrible sickness, and so it 

 is, in the fullest meaning of the word; it manifests itself 

 in different ways, but is always periodical; it returns at 

 regular intervals, either daily or every second or third 

 day. During these intervals the patient may either feel 

 quite well and may eat and drink with a good appetite; 

 or he may have a constant chilly sensation, and be at the 

 same time unable to go to sleep, and may feel a repug- 

 nance to the taking of nourishment, as was the case with 

 me. The chill which lasts at times from 6 to 8 hours, is 

 followed by a high fever, during which the patient be- 

 comes delirious and sees himself surrounded by the most 

 horrid creations of a sickly fancy. But this is not all; 

 during the same time he suffers an agony of pain in the 

 chest, stomach and intestines; he feels as if he would 

 suffocate the very next minute. The worst, however, is 

 the complete apathy into which the sufferer sinks. ' It 

 is as if there were forever an end to every mental exer- 

 tion. He sees his future black, and while in other dis- 

 eases hope sustains the sufferer, it is jnst the reverse 

 with one stricken by this fever: hope abandons him at 

 onee and as if forever. It is a most horrible condition to 

 be in, and it is impossible to describe it. 



