But On The 2d Of June
A Relapse Showed To The Makololo, Who Knew The Complaint,
That My Indisposition Was No Other Than The Fever, With Which
I Have Since Made A More Intimate Acquaintance.
Cold east winds
prevail at this time; and as they come over the extensive flats
inundated by the Chobe,
As well as many other districts
where pools of rain-water are now drying up, they may be supposed
to be loaded with malaria and watery vapor, and many cases of fever follow.
The usual symptoms of stopped secretion are manifested -
shivering and a feeling of coldness, though the skin is quite hot
to the touch of another. The heat in the axilla, over the heart
and region of the stomach, was in my case 100 Deg.; but along the spine
and at the nape of the neck 103 Deg. The internal processes were all,
with the exception of the kidneys and liver, stopped;
the latter, in its efforts to free the blood of noxious particles,
often secretes enormous quantities of bile. There were pains along the spine,
and frontal headache. Anxious to ascertain whether the natives
possessed the knowledge of any remedy of which we were ignorant,
I requested the assistance of one of Sekeletu's doctors.
He put some roots into a pot with water, and, when it was boiling,
placed it on a spot beneath a blanket thrown around both me and it.
This produced no immediate effect; he then got a small bundle of different
kinds of medicinal woods, and, burning them in a potsherd nearly to ashes,
used the smoke and hot vapor arising from them as an auxiliary to the other
in causing diaphoresis.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 306 of 1070
Words from 87888 to 88170
of 306638
