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 thereupon, 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. Phelps, arrived at Nas- 
sdu 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 anurse whom the doctor recommended. This nurse got drunk, + 
neglected the sick man, who took cold in consequence, and had 
arelapse. 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 insmall 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 had announced that he could not recover. 
With the exception of keeping a little piece of camphor gum in 
her month, she did nothing to escape the contagion of the dis- 
ease. One of the attending physicians, who was accustomed to 
