At each and every place I know, "men
have died and worms have eaten them." The safest way of
Dealing
with water I know is to boil it hard for ten minutes at least, and
then instantly pour it into a jar with a narrow neck, which plug up
with a wad of fresh cotton-wool - not a cork; and should you object
to the flat taste of boiled water, plunge into it a bit of red-hot
iron, which will make it more agreeable in taste. BEFORE boiling
the water you can carefully filter it if you like. A good filter is
a very fine thing for clearing drinking water of hippopotami,
crocodiles, water snakes, catfish, etc., and I daresay it will stop
back sixty per cent. of the live or dead African natives that may be
in it; but if you think it is going to stop back the microbe of
marsh fever - my good sir, you are mistaken. And remember that you
must give up cold water, boiled or unboiled, altogether; for if you
take the boiled or filtered water and put it into one of those
water-coolers, and leave it hanging exposed to night air or day on
the verandah, you might just as well save yourself the trouble of
boiling it at all.
Next in danger to the diseases come the remedies for them. Let the
new-comer remember, in dealing with quinine, calomel, arsenic, and
spirits, that they are not castor sugar nor he a glass bottle, but
let him use them all - the two first fairly frequently - not waiting
for an attack of fever and then ladling them into himself with a
spoon.
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