50 TRAVELS AMONGST THE GREAT ANDES, chap. hi. 



these experiences. Ten grains to a wine glass of water was 

 the proportion he recommended, — the dose to be repeated every 

 two or three hours, if necessary. It appeared to me to operate 

 beneficially, though it must be admitted that it was not easy to 

 determine, as one might have recovered just as well without 

 taking it at all. At all events, after taking it, the intensity of 

 the symptoms diminished, there were fewer gaspings, and in some 

 degree a feeling of relief. 



Louis Carrel also submitted himself to experiment, and seemed 

 to derive benefit ; but Jean-Antoine sturdily refused to take any 

 '^ doctor's stuff,' which he regarded as an insult to intelligence. 

 For all human ills, for every complaint, from dysentery to want 

 of air, there was, in his opinion, but one remedy ; and that was 

 Wine ; most efficacious always if taken hot, more especially if 

 a little spice and sugar were added to it. 



The stories that he related respecting the virtues of Eed wine 

 would be enough to fill a book. The wine must be Eed — 

 ^^ White wine," he used to say dogmatically, ^^is bad, it cuts the 

 legs." Most of these legends I cannot remember, but there was 

 one which it was impossible to forget, commencing thus. " Eed 

 wine when heated and beaten up with raw eggs is good for 

 many complaints — ^particularly at the Eve of St. John, when the 

 moon is at the full, for women who are in the family way ; pro- 

 vided it is drunk whilst looking over the left shoulder, and " — I 

 never heard the end of that story, because I laughed too soon. 



His opinions upon things in general were often very original, 

 and I learned much whilst in his company ; amongst the rest, 

 that, for the cure of headache, nothing better can be mentioned 

 than keeping the head 2varm and the feet cold. It is only fair 

 to say that he practised what he preached. I can remember no 

 more curious sight than that of this middle-aged man, lying 

 nearly obscured under a pile of ponchos, with his head bound up 

 in a wonderful arrangement of handkerchiefs, vainly attempting 

 to smoke a short pipe whilst gasping like a choking cod-fish, 



