Some African Maladies 
pustules by rolling about on the hard grass mat. 
Air, a hard bed, light clothing and a simple diet 
generally prevents this dreaded disease from as¬ 
suming a very virulent form among the natives. 
In our own home only did I see it in its worst 
form. Our cook, a Liberian woman, was taken 
down with it and was extremely ill for many 
days. When she recovered her face was like a 
piece of perforated paper. Mr. Phillips was then 
taken down but he had been vaccinated in his 
youth and his case was not quite so severe. I 
followed next but escaped with my life because 
I had been vaccinated. My wife nursed every 
case, but escaped entirely though she remained 
with me day and night. But it fell to her lot to 
have the “Guinea worm,” a disease she dreaded 
as much as she did the smallpox. The natives, 
however, did not abhor it as they did smallpox 
for one of their curses was “ May the smallpox 
catch you.” 
None of us escaped the boils and the dreadful 
ulcers which sometimes follow attacks of mala¬ 
rial fever. Once forty boils, painful in the ex¬ 
treme, bloomed on my breast at one and the 
same time. The ulcers are large and deep, but 
not so painful. They often leave deep scars. 
My wife continued to have attacks of fever as 
in 
