134 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



headache was distressing. I relieved the headache from 

 time to time, by applying cold water to the temples, and 

 holding a wet handkerchief there. The next morning 

 the fever ran very high, and I took five more grains of 

 calomel and ten of jalap, determined, whatever might 

 be the case, this should be the last dose of calomel. 

 About two o'clock in the afternoon the fever remitted, 

 and a copious perspiration came on ; there was no more 

 headache, nor thirst, nor pain in the back, and the 

 following night was comparatively a good one. The 

 next morning I swallowed a large dose of castor oil : it 

 was genuine, for Louisa Backer had made it from the 

 seeds of the trees which grew near the door. I was 

 now entirely free from all symptoms of fever, or appre- 

 hensions of a return ; and the morning after I began to 

 take bark, and continued it for a fortnight. This put 

 all to rights. 



Meets with The story of the wound I got in the forest, 

 an accident. ^-^^ mode of cure, are very short. — I had 



pursued a red-headed woodpecker for above a mile in the 

 forest, without being able to get a shot at it. Thinking 

 more of the woodpecker, as I ran along, than of the 

 way before me, I trod upon a little hardwood stump, 

 which was just about an inch or so above the ground ; 

 it entered the hollow part of my foot, making a deep 

 and lacerated wound there. It had brought me to the 

 ground, and there I lay till a transitory fit of sickness 

 went off*. T allowed it to bleed freely, and on reaching 

 head-quarters, washed it well and probed it, to feel if 

 any foreign body was left within it. Being satisfied 

 that there was none, I brought the edges of the wound 

 together, and then put a piece of lint on it, and over 

 that a very large poultice, which was changed morning, 



