I dozed and woke and startled,
and then dozed again, and suddenly awoke thinking I was falling down a
precipice.
The return of the bats to their diurnal retreat, which was in the thatch
above my hammock, informed me that the sun was now fast approaching to the
eastern horizon. I arose in languor and in pain, the pulse at one hundred
and twenty. I took ten grains of calomel and a scruple of jalap, and drank
during the day large draughts of tea, weak and warm. The physic did its
duty, but there was no remission of fever or headache, though the pain of
the back was less acute. I was saved the trouble of keeping the room cool,
as the wind beat in at every quarter.
At five in the evening the pulse had risen to one hundred and thirty, and
the headache almost insupportable, especially on looking to the right or
left. I now opened a vein, and made a large orifice, to allow the blood to
rush out rapidly; I closed it after losing sixteen ounces. I then steeped
my feet in warm water and got into the hammock. After bleeding the pulse
fell to ninety, and the head was much relieved, but during the night, which
was very restless, the pulse rose again to one hundred and twenty, and at
times the headache was distressing.
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