48 



METHOD OF TREATMENT. 



Chap. II. 



let him be indolent, or guilty of excesses in eating or 

 drinking, or have poor, scanty fare, — and the fever will 

 probably become a more serious matter. It is of a milder 

 type at Tette than at Quillimane or on the low sea-coast ; 

 and, as in this part of Africa one is as liable to fever as to 

 colds in England, it would be advisable for strangers 

 always to hasten from the coast to the high lands, in 

 order that when the seizure does take place, it may be of 

 the mildest type. Although quinine was not found to be 

 a preventive, except possibly in the way of acting as a 

 tonic, and rendering the system more able to resist the in- 

 fluence of malaria, it was found invaluable in the cure of 

 the complaint, as soon as pains in the back, sore bones, 

 headache, yawning, quick and sometimes intermittent 

 pulse, noticeable pulsations of the jugulars, with suffused 

 eyes, hot skin, and foul tongue, began.* 



Very curious are the effects of African fever on certain 

 minds. Cheerfulness vanishes, and the whole mental 

 horizon is overcast with black clouds of gloom and sad- 

 ness. The liveliest joke cannot provoke even the sem- 

 blance of a smile. The countenance is grave, the eyes 

 suffused, and the few utterances are made in the piping 

 voice of a wailing infant. An irritable temper is often 



* A remedy composed of from 

 six to eight grains of resin of 

 jalap, the same of rhubarb, and 

 three each of calomel and 

 quinine, made up into four pills, 

 with tincture of cardamoms, 

 usually relieved all the symp- 

 toms in five or six hours. Four 

 pills are a full dose for a man — 

 one will suffice for a woman. 

 They received from our men the 

 name of "rousers," from their 

 efficacy in rousing up even those 



most prostrated. When their 

 operation is delayed, a dessert- 

 spoonful of Epsom salts should 

 be given. Quinine after or 

 during the operation of the pills, 

 in large doses every two or three 

 hours, until deafness or cin- 

 chonism ensued, completed the 

 cure. The only cases in which 

 we found ourselves completely 

 helpless, were those in which 

 obstinate vomiting ensued. 



