February 7th to 14th
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How do the cases run generally? ‘Very simply indeed. Chlorodyne, opium pill. Chlorodyne, collapse, nitre, bricks to the feet, and then – the burning ghat. The last seems to be the only thing that stops the trouble.’ |
This is from “At the End of the Passage“, collected in Life’s Handicap Four men from remote stations in Northern India, get together in the hot season from time to time; a doctor, a man from the police, another from the Survey, and an assistant Engineer. They ate exchanging experiences on another sweltering dusty day. Here the doctor is telling how he got an old man through a bout of fever. Later the Engineer, driven crazy by nightmares, kills himself. |
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‘I drenched him then and there with a half-cup of waters, which I do not say cure the plague, but are excellent against heaviness of spirits.’ ‘What were they ?’ said X. ‘White brandy rectified, camphor, cardamons, ginger, two sorts of pepper, and aniseed.\ ‘Whew!’ said Y. ‘Waters you call ’em!’ |
This is from “A Doctor of Medicine” in Rewards and Fairies. Nicholas Culpeper, doctor and herbalist, rallies the people in a plague-stricken village in seventeenth century Sussex. He urges them to kill the rats, which his astrology tells him are a malign influence. Though he does not know it, they the source of the plague, and the village is saved. |
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‘Many have died before–‘ ‘That I surely believe,’ said X. ‘They knew the value of my drugs. I do not give my sick the mere ink in which a charm is written, but hot and rending drugs which descend and wrestle with the evil.’ ‘Very mightily they do so,’ sighed the old lady. |
Kim and the Lama, after he has left school and embarked on the Great Game, have been staying in the house of the Sahiba at Saharunpore. Also there is a Babu, a Hakim, and itinerant vendor of drugs. Here he reminds the old lady of the power of his potions. To Kim’s amazement he later proves to be Hurree Chunder Mookerjee, an experienced ageant, well known to Kim failed to recognise him. Thereafter he travels up into the hills with Kim anfd the Lama, on the track of Russian spies. |