Part 2 (1/2)

Carriages.--An animal--camels always excepted--draws upon wheels in a wild country about two and a half times the weight he can carry.

lbs.

A light cart, exclusive of the driver, should not carry more than..................................................800 A light waggon, such as one or two horses would trot away with, along a turnpike road, not more than...........1500 A waggon of the strongest construction, not more than.........3000

Weight of Rations.--A fair estimate in commissariat matters is as follows:-- A strong waggon full of food carries 1000 full-day rations The pack of an ox ” 40 ”

The pack of a horse ” 30 ”

A slaughter ox yields, as fresh meat 80 ”

A fat sheep yields ” 10 ”

(N.B. Meat when jerked loses about one-half of its nouris.h.i.+ng powers.)

MEDICINE.

General Remarks.--Travellers are apt to expect too much from their medicines, and to think that savages will hail them as demiG.o.ds wherever they go. But their patients are generally cripples who want to be made whole in a moment, and other suchlike impracticable cases. Powerful emetics, purgatives, and eyewashes are the most popular physickings.

The traveller who is sick away from help, may console himself with the proverb, that ”though there is a great difference between a good physician and a bad one, there is very little between a good one and none at all.”

Drugs and Instruments.--Outfit of Medicines,--A traveller, unless he be a professed physician, has no object in taking a large a.s.sortment of drugs.

He wants a few powders, ready prepared; which a physician, who knows the diseases of the country in which he is about to travel, will prescribe for him. Those in general use are as follows:--

1. Emetic, mild; 2. ditto, very powerful, for poison (sulphate of zinc, also used as an eye-wash in Ophthalmia). e. Aperient, mild; 4. ditto, powerful. 5. Cordial for diarrhoea. 6. Quinine for ague. 7. Sudorific (Dover's powder). 8. Chlorodyne. 9. Camphor. 10. Carbolic acid.

In addition to these powders, the traveller will want Warburg's fever-drops; glycerine or cold cream; mustard-paper for blistering; heartburn lozenges; lint; a small roll of diachylon; lunar-caustic, in a proper holder, to touch old sores with, and for snake-bites; a scalpel and a blunt-pointed bistoury, with which to open abcesses (the blades of these should be waxed, to keep them from rust); a good pair of forceps, to pull out thorns; a couple of needles, to sew up gashes; waxed thread, or better, silver wire. A mild effervescing aperient, like Moxon's is very convenient. Seidlitz-powders are perhaps a little too strong for frequent use in a tropical climate.

How to carry Medicines.--The medicines should be kept in zinc pill-boxes with a few letters punched both on their tops and bottoms, to indicate what they contain, as Emet., Astr. etc. It is more important that the bottoms of the boxes should be labelled than their tops; because when two of them have been opened at the same time, it often happens that the tops run a risk of being changed.

It will save continual trouble with weights and scales, if the powders be so diluted with flour, that one Measureful of each shall be a full average dose for an adult; and if the measure to which they are adopted be cylindrical, and of such a size as just to admit a common lead-pencil, and of a determined length, it can at any time be replaced by twisting up a paper cartridge. I would further suggest that the powders be differently coloured, one colour being used for emetics and another for aperients.

Lint, to make.--Sc.r.a.pe a piece of linen with a knife.

Ointment.--Simple cerate, which is spread on lint as a soothing plaister for sores, consists of equal parts of oil and wax; but lard may be used as a subst.i.tute for the wax.

Seidlitz-powders are not often to be procured in the form we are accustomed to take them in, in England; so a recipe for making 12 sets of them, is annexed:--1 1/2 oz. of Carbonate of Soda and 3 oz. of Tartarised Soda, for the blue papers; 7 drachms of Tartaric Acid, for the white papers.

Bush Remedies.--Emetics.--For want of proper physic, drink a charge of gunpowder in a tumblerful of warm water of soap-suds, and tickle the throat.

Vapour-baths are used in many countries, and the following plan, used in Russia, is often the most convenient. Heat stones in the fire, and put them on the ground in the middle of the cabin or tent; on these pour a little water, and clouds of vapour are given off. In other parts of the world branches are spread on hot wood-embers, and the patient is placed upon these, wrapped in a large cloth; water is then sprinkled on the embers, and the patient is soon covered with a cloud of vapour. The traveller who is chilled or over-worked, and has a day of rest before him, would do well to practise this simple and pleasant remedy.

Bleeding and Cupping'.--Physicians say, now-a-days that bleeding is rarely, if ever, required; and that frequently it does much harm; but they used to bleed for everything. Many savages know how to cup: they commonly use a piece ofa horn as the cup, and they either suck at a hole in the top of the horn, to produce the necessary vacuum, or they make a blaze as we do, but with a wisp of gra.s.s.

Illnesses.--Fevers of all kinds, diarrhoea, and rheumatism, are the plagues that most afflict travellers; ophthalmia often threatens them.

Change of air, from the flat country up into the hills, as soon as the first violence of the illness is past, works wonders in hastening and perfecting a cure.

Fever.--The number of travellers that have fallen victims to fever in certain lands is terrible: it is a matter of serious consideration whether any motives, short of imperious duty, justify a person in braving a fever-stricken country. In the ill-fated Niger expedition, three vessels were employed, of which the 'Albert' stayed the longest time in the river, namely two months and two days. Her English crew consisted of 62 men; of these, 55 caught fever in the river, and 23 died. Of the remaining seven, only two ultimately escaped scot-free; the others suffering, more or less severely, on their return to England. In Dr.

McWilliams's Medical History of this expedition, it is laid down that the Niger fever, which may be considered as a type of pestilential fever generally, usually sets in sixteen days after exposure to the malaria; and that one attack, instead of acclimatising the patient, seems to render him all the more liable to a second. Every conceivable precaution known in those days, had been taken to ensure the health of the crew of the 'Albert.' A great discovery of modern days is the power of quinine to keep off many types of fever. A person would, now, have little to fear in taking a pa.s.sage in a Niger steamer; supposing that vessels ran regularly up that river. The quinine he would take, beginning at the coast, would render him proof against fever, until he had pa.s.sed the delta; but nothing would remove the risk of a long sojourn in the delta itself.

However, I should add that Dr. Livingstone's experience on the zambesi throws doubt on the power of quinine to keep off the type of fever that prevails upon that river.

Precautions in unhealthy Places.--There are certain precautions which should be borne in mind in unhealthy places, besides that which I have just mentioned of regularly taking small doses of quinine, such as never to encamp to the leeward of a marsh; to sleep close in between large fires, with a handkerchief gathered round your face (natural instinct will teach this); to avoid starting too early in the morning; and to beware of unnecessary hunger, hards.h.i.+p, and exposure. It is a widely-corroborated fact that the banks of a river and adjacent plains are often less affected by malaria than the low hills that overlook them.