220 THE CAMEL 



in healing. The idea was purely experimental on my 

 part what in the appropriate language of Mr. Burnand 

 would be called a happy thought and suggested itself 

 one day when I was at my wits' end to know what to do ; 

 the sweetness and softness of the Mle water decided 

 me, for I felt that the mud deposited by the water, 

 containing as it does any amount of vegetable matter, 

 would do no harm, even if it did no good. Since 

 writing this I came across the following in ' Chambers's 

 Journal' for August 1892, which I quote with interest : 

 'In the course of a discussion which took place 

 recently after the reading of a paper at the Society of 

 Arts, Mr. J. Hughes referred to the composition of 

 Mle mud, the fertilising value of which has always been 

 regarded as being great. Samples of this mud he had, 

 some years ago, had occasion to analyse, and he found 

 two special points about it which were not generally 

 known one of these was that the water was remarkably 

 soft, and the other that it contained a considerable 

 amount of " nitric acid." The mud, in fact, was a 

 complete manure, containing all the essentials for the 

 food of plants in a very fine form, which alone was a 

 great advantage.' The first of these points I learned 

 ten years ago, after constant external and internal use 

 of Nile water ; the second I am glad to learn, it 

 accounts entirely for the healing of the sores. 

 Blood- 3. Blood-poisoning is as a rule the result of working 



animals with bad unhealthy sores and galls, though of 

 course, so professional men have informed me, this is 

 not the only cause. I am not exaggerating in the least 

 when I say that I have seen scores and scores of 

 unfortunate creatures with sores bigger than a saucer, 



