The Winslow mail., 1900-02-15
IMMUNE TO FEVERS.
An EngIishman Tells of remarkable
Treatment Employed in
south America.

The world moves fast, but it is pos
sible that some of the most brilliant
discoveries have not gone beyond the
simple practices OF uncivilized peoples.
A Jamaica journalist gives his personal
experience of how the Indians of South
America not only cure patient OF the
mostdangerous stages of malarial fever,
butalso. bv inoculation, insure for many
wears his immunity from future at
tacks. Other travellers have had sim
liar experience, and no less an author
ity than Sir Clements Markham has tes-
tifed to the efficiency of these Indian
cures. The writer, after long escaping
the terrible fevers of the country, sue
cumbed at last. He says:
81 lay in my hammock, ravaged by an
all-consuming fever, with death in
sight. Medical aid, supposing it to be
of anv use, was not to be had within
fortnight's journey A few miles
from our camp was an Indian settle
ment. [ had had some dealings with,
and won the good will of the head man,
so L sent to tell him that wanted the
| SGINlCGS
"It was midnight when the messen-
ger returned with my friend, the old
chief, and the tribe medicine man.
Bv this time I was past knowing any
thing of my surroundings. My COM
panions told me afterward that 1 had
already developed all the well-known
symptoms of febrile collapse.
''The peiman tended me, administer
ing 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 peiman,
and enough noise was made to indicate
dozen people inside.
Sat about three o'clock in the morn
ing, when the peiman issued forth and
nv companions were allowed sight Of
me, I was sleeping naturally, bathed
in profuse perspiration, which was al
ready moistening the outer folds of the
double blanket that enveloped me. At
eight o'clock [ awoke and then slept
again for "a hours, the peiman from
time to time administering subcutane-
Gus injections. When I finally awol1e
there was not the slightest trace Of
fever. In three days 1 was able to be
about and in a week I was fit to under
take long journey"
The most wonderful part of the
story, however, is the sequel. The pei
man, 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 exposed 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 inoculated. The operation con-
sisted of stabbing gently into the left
wrist with a bunch of exceedingly fine
needles plucked from hard spiny leaf,
the needles being first passed through
flame and then dipped in a black liquid.
In short time all the well-known
symptoms of malarial fever developed,
and then peculiarly nauseous medi-
cine was administered, and a deep
sleep completed the business. When
the patient awol1e 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-
cradle exposure, including a night
spent under the trees after the upset
ting of his boat OF the four white men
i'll the boat, three had fever and two
died in "a hours; the third returned
to the United States with health COM
pletely broken.
Afterward 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 symptoms
were Observation-Disclosures Journal.