He was spotted all
over with large black, nearly round, patches.
I left Khamisi in charge of the dead beast, while I returned to
camp to send off men to cut it up, and convey the meat to our
village. But Khamisi climbed a tree for fear of the lions, and the
vultures settled on it, so that when the men arrived on the spot,
the eyes, the tongue, and a great part of the posteriors were eaten
up. What remained weighed as follows, when brought in and hung to
the scales:
1 hind leg . . . . 134 lbs.
1 " . . . . 136 "
1 fore leg . . . . 160 "
I " . . . . 160 "
Ribs . . . . . . 158 "
Neck . . . . . . 74 "
Rump . . . . . . 87 "
Breast . . . . . 46 "
Liver . . . . . 20 "
Lungs . . . . . 12 "
Heart . . . . . 6 "
Total weight of eatable portions . . 993 lbs.
Skin and head, 181 lbs.
The three days following I suffered from a severe attack of fever,
and was unable to stir from bed. I applied my usual remedies for
it, which consisted of colocynth and quinine; but experience has
shown me that an excessive use of the same cathartic weakens its
effect, and that it would be well for travellers to take with them
different medicines to cause proper action in the liver, such as
colocynth, calomel, resin of jalap, Epsom salts; and that no
quinine should be taken until such medicines shall have prepared
the system for its reception.
The Doctor's prescription for fever consists of 3 grains
of resin of jalap, and 2 grains of calomel, with tincture of
cardamoms put in just enough to prevent irritation of the
stomach - made into the form of a pill - which is to be taken as
soon as one begins to feel the excessive languor and weariness
which is the sure forerunner of the African type of fever. An
hour or two later a cup of coffee, unsugared and without milk,
ought to be taken, to cause a quicker action. The Doctor also
thinks that quinine should be taken with the pill; but my
experience - though it weighs nothing against what he has endured -
has proved to me that quinine is useless until after the medicine
has taken effect. My stomach could never bear quinine unless
subsequent to the cathartic. A well-known missionary at
Constantinople recommends travellers to take 3 grains of
tartar-emetic for the ejection of the bilious matter in the
stomach; but the reverend doctor possibly forgets that much more
of the system is disorganized than the stomach; and though in
one or two cases of a slight attack, this remedy may have proved
successful, it is altogether too violent for an enfeebled man
in Africa.
