A TERRIBLE DAY'S MARCH 



the piece of rope from the headstall of the mule while 

 the vultures were tearing strips of flesh from its carcase. 

 Naturally the birds resented the intrusion of the bovs, 

 and attacked them. Fortunately, up to then only one 

 or two of the rapacious creatures had put in an appear- 

 ance or the affair would have ended badly for the boys. 

 By midday there were large numbers of these birds 

 hovering over the body, that lay out in the swamp 

 below, some three miles from our camp. That day 

 nine of the boys were down with fever and moaning 

 piteously. Several of them declared that they were 

 about to die, but I advised them to think it well over 

 before deciding finally. Even the sight of food was 

 repulsive to them — that alone was sufficient evidence 

 that something was wrong with them. About midday 

 I had to go to bed with a sharp attack of fever. I tried 

 some of Dr. Warburg's Fever Tincture, and gained con- 

 siderable relief from it. The majority of drugs other 

 than quinine are not to be recommended, as opium is 

 largely employed in their making ; but Dr. Warburg's 

 Tincture is, I am convinced, an excellent antidote for 

 fever and many other complaints that one is likely to 

 meet along the Nile and in other equatorial countries. 



By the way, while on the subject of fever and its 

 cures, many people think it a good thing to take five 

 grains or so of quinine daily even before any symptoms 

 of fever are apparent. Quinine is an excellent thing, and 

 it is universally acknowledged by those who have lived 

 in fever countries to be still the finest and safest thing 

 to use as a cure for fever ; but it should never be abused, 

 for if used injudiciously it is often injurious to health, 

 causing dizziness, deafness, and looseness of the teeth. 

 Moreover, when the attack of malaria comes, as it invari- 

 ably does to the hunter, traveller, and explorer, larger 

 doses are required than would otherwise have been needed 

 had the subject not taken quinine before he even 



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