192 ISLES OF SUMMER. 



held the office of Assistant United States Consul. This case oc- 

 curred in a house situated upon high ground very near to the 

 hotel, which the owner and his family thereujion, for prudential 

 reasons, vacated. Dr. Aiken then came to the Victoria Hotel to 

 board, and he was afterwards our fellow passenger when we left 

 Nassau for Florida. He told us that the disease was yellow fever, 

 and that the sanitary conditions of the Vice-Consul's premises 

 outside of and close to his dwelling house were very offensive and 

 bad. 



Our young friend from Vermont, Mr. Plielps, arrived at Nas- 

 sau in November with his invalid mother. He had the fever, 

 but his mother escaped, although she took care of him night and 

 day, with the exception of two nights, when, by advice of a local 

 physician, she entrusted her son, while convalescent, to the care 

 of a nurse whom the doctor recommended. This nurse got drunk, 

 neglected the sick man, who took cold in consequence, and had 

 a relapse. His life was then despaired of by the physicians, but 

 he was saved at last by an experiment which the mother had the 

 sagacity and courage to make upon her own responsibility, and 

 without the knowledge of the medical attendants. She admin- 

 istered, in connection with the prescribed medicines, some kind 

 of salts, (we have forgotten what kind,) first in small but frequent 

 doses, watching him closely all the while, and had the great sat- 

 isfaction of seeing the fever gradually give way, and finally dis- 

 appear. The doses were increased as the salutary operation of 

 the medicine was developed. When she afterwards told the 

 doctors what she had been doing, they were (as she represented 

 to us) offended, although she had apparently saved the life of 

 her son after they hod announced that he could not recover. 

 With the exception of keeping a little piece of camjDhor gum in 

 her mouth, she did nothing to escape the contagion of the dis- 

 ease. One of the attending physicians, who was accustomed to 



