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 grass.

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 passage 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 passed 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.