HEART DISEASE. MENTAL MALADIES. POISON 47 
glorious African night and the shimmering glow of the 
starry sky lighted up the scene. I ordered them to set 
her free, which they did, but with timidity and hesita- 
tion. The woman was no sooner free than she sprang 
at me in order to seize my lamp and throw it away. The 
natives fled with shrieks in every direction and would 
not come any nearer, even when the woman, whose 
hand I had seized, sank quietly to the ground as I told 
her, and offered me her arm for an injection of morphia 
and scopolamin. A few moments later she followed 
me to a hut, where, in a short time, she went to sleep. 
The case was one of an attack of recurrent maniacal 
disturbance, and in a fortnight she was well again, at 
least for a time. In consequence of this the report 
spread that the doctor was a great magician and could 
cure all mental diseases. 
Unfortunately, I was soon to learn that there are 
forms of maniacal disturbance here with which our 
drugs can do little or nothing. The second case was an 
old man, and he, too, was brought with hands and feet 
bound. The ropes had cut deeply into his flesh, and 
hands and feet alike were covered with blood and sores. 
I was amazed at the small effect produced by the 
strongest doses of morphia, scopolamin, chloral hydrate, 
and bromide of potassium. On the second day Joseph 
said to me : “ Doctor, believe me, the man is out of his 
mind because he has been poisoned. You will make 
nothing of him ; he will get weaker and wilder, and at 
last he will die.” And Joseph was right ; in a fortnight 
the man was dead. From one of the Catholic fathers I 
learnt that he had robbed some women, and, therefore, 
had been followed up and poisoned by their relatives. 
A similar case I was able to study from the beginning. 
