■ scene ends after a few days with convalescence perhaps,’
and a slow recovery, or, in an extreme case, with death,,
when the body will he interred at the Point among the
remains of other unfortunates. But no lesson will he
drawn from that death any more than from the many
precéding deaths, until those who can read and learn
will obtain it from this chapter.
Truly it is extremely discouraging to feel that of
the twenty other young or mature gentlemen who may
have seen this youth, and perhaps enjoyed his society
for this one evening, there is not one of them can make
an approachable" guess at the real cause which cut him
off so prematurely. Each will have his opinion : the
old veteran will remark that it was a pity such a boy:
should have left his mother ; another will hazard
a remark that, no doubt, it was some form of organic,
disease ; another will attribute it to hereditary weakness,
and he will quote De Bloeme and G-reshoff and
Muller, and several others who came out as boys and
throve marvellously on the climate. One thoughtless
man will cry out, “ Another victim of Africa ! Cruel,
murderous Africa ! ” while one may perhaps venture:
to utter his belief that it was the Portuguese wine,
which, if not very much diluted, is as bad as brandy !
And so on—all mere surmises, as far opposite to the-
truth as the truth is to lying !
The fever was caused by sitting in his wet flannels
in the cold night air. , We know how a young man in:
Europe, returning home in wet clothes, feeling shivery,
may be attacked with inflammation of the lungs, and,
despite the most loving attention and highest medical climate—
. t .. , Part I.
skill, may be carried off by death.* Life m Africa
does not exempt another young man from a like effect
arising from a similar cause. Strange to say, young
men fresh from Europe are very prone to believe that
if their flannels are made “ wringing wet ” from violent
perspiration, they are not liable to the same dangers
as one who has been wetted and chilled by a wintry
■rain-storm. On their return to Europe, however,
they have rather inverted their opinions, preferring
to believe that a sudden exposure of the body when
perspiring to a cold draught is not so dangerous as a
similar experiment would be in Africa.
Many will say that this is incredible, but such errors
of judgment occur nevertheless. There are about
twenty cases, to my personal knowledge to prove the
statement. One case, resulting in pneumonia, was .
lately telegraphed from Berlin over to England, and
a friend of mine died but a short time ago from
inflammation of the lungs, after successfully enduring
several years’ work on the Congo. Several of my
English friends' have also lost coloured men from
Africa through their rash forgetfulness of avoiding
draughts when heated by the warm temperature of
their rooms. I have been a victim to my own carelessness
repeatedly,' and though I know well what the
* A medical authority, in New York has lately drawn attention to-the
fact that the violent exercise indulged in By 20,000 young people at
the skating rinks every evening has caused an alarming increase of
pneumonia, 149 deaths in.one week being reported. This exercise induces
copious perspiration and fatigue, and, thoughtless of’consequences, the
young have sallied out from the rinks to éncounter the keen cold blasts.