The suburban citizen., 1900-01-20
IMMUNE TO FEVERs:
An EnRlIshmAn Tells OF Remarkable
Treatment Employed in South Ansrica.

An EnRlIshmAn Tells OF Remarkable
Treatment Employed in South America.
The world moves fast, but il is pos.
sible that some of the most brilliant
discoveries have not gone beyond the
simple practices of uncivilized peo.
pies. A Jamaica journalist gives his
personal experience of how the In.
dians of South America not only cure
a patient of the most dangerous stage
Of malarisl fever, but also, by inocula.
tion, insure for many years his i'm.
munity from future attacks. Other
travellers have had similar experience,
and no less ON authority than Sir
Clements Markham has testified to
the efficiency of these Indian cures.
The writer, after long escaping the
terrible fevers of the country, sue
cumbed at last He says;
''I lay in my hammock, ravRged by
an all.consuming fever, with death in
sight. Medical aid, supposing it to
be of any use, was not to be had
within fortnight's journey. A few
miles from our camp was a Indian
settlement. l had had some dealings
with, and won the good will of the
head man, so / sent to tell him that /
wanted the services OF q peiman, or
native doctor.
''It was midnight when the messen'
ger returned with my friend, the old
chief, and the tribe medicine man..
By this time was past knowing any.
thing of my surroundings. My com.
panions told me afterward that had
already developed all the well-known
symptoms of febrile collapse.
'"rhe peiman tended me, admins
tering internal remedies by means of
roughly devised but effective subcu.
taneous and other injections. Then
followed the inevitable mummery.
when 1 was shut up with the pei.
man, ard enough noise was made to
indicate dozen people inside.
"At about 8 o'clock in the morning,
when the peiman issued forth and my
companions were allowed sight of
me, I was sleeping naturally, bathed
in profuse perspiration, which was
already moistening the outer folds of
the double blanket that envelopea
me. At o'clock 1 awoke and then
slept again for twenty-four hours, the
peiman from time to time administer
ing subcutaneous injections. When /
finally awoke there was not the
slightest trace of fever. In three
days 1 was able to be about and in a
week l was fit to undertake a long
journey"
The most wonderful part of the
story, however, is the sequel. The
peiman, pleased with the reward
given him, offered to inoculate his
patient so as to render him proof
against all kinds OF "bush" fevers,
no matter how much he might be ex.
posed to them, for at least 100 moons.
If he contracted fever it would be Of
the mildest kind.
The traveller went to the settlement
and was inoculNted. The operation
consisted of stabbing gently into the
left wrist with bunch of exceed
ingly fine needles plucked from q
hard spiny leaf, the needles being
first passed through fame and then
dipped in black liquid. In a short
time all the well-known symptoms oi
malarial fever developed, then q
peculiarly nauseous medicine was ad'
ministered, and a deep sleep com
pleted the business. When the
patient awoke he felt perfectly well
except for the smarting of his wrist,
which had to be bandaged.
For a long time after this he trav'
eled in some of the worst swamps OF
Central America, undergoing consid'
erable exposure, including a night
spent under the trees after the upset
ting of his boat. OF the four white
men In the boat three had fever and
two died in twenty-four hours; the
third returned to the United States
with health completely broken.
Afterwsrd he spent six years about
the Isthmus OF Panama, and in that
hotbed of fever, Colon, never expert
enced days fever. Not until ten
years after inoculation did touch OF
fever come, and then no alarming
| sym ptoms were developed.