Any kind of cooling drink most palatable to the patient may be made use of liberally, and only chicken or other broth as food.
This treatment in the majority of cases will suffice to stop the fever or ague. Ten or twelve grains of quinine (in small doses) should be given a few hours before the completion of the twenty-four hours after the commencement of the attack, when its recurrence takes place if the amount of quinine first given has not been sufficient to arrest it. Should the attack come on a second time, the same treatment must be adopted, with an increased amount of quinine. For a couple of days or so nothing but fowl-soup, or other light nutritious food, should be given, increasing it only as the appetite becomes fully developed, and when it is certain that the attack has been successfully combated. A very strong but false appetite is often developed immediately after a fever, which it is necessary to be very careful not to satisfy with strong food, as this would be quite sufficient to cause indigestion, and with certainty produce a worse attack of fever, often complicated with dangerous bilious derangement, vomiting, &c. Bilious fevers of a bad type are comparatively rare in Angola; and if the foregoing all-important precaution is taken, of attending carefully to a fever at first, there is but little fear of the dangerous type.
A great deal of the sickness on the coast is entirely owing to the want of this precaution. People get into a careless habit of going about with a little fever on them every day, and it is only when they become very reduced in strength, or unwell, that they call the doctor or place themselves under proper treatment or regimen.
It is perfectly impossible to account for the origin of fevers in Africa. They do not always depend upon the proximity of marshes or stagnant water. They were very frequent at Bembe, where I believe the thick forest around had something to do with their occurrence, as it became healthier as these were gradually cleared away. Fever is sometimes common in places near the sea, where there are neither marshes nor forests for considerable distances.
Again, the banks of rivers may be comparatively free from fevers, whilst at the same time places apparently least likely are suffering from them. In any case, even in the dangerous type, there is never any long convalescence or recovery, as happens with the agues and fevers of the marshy places in Europe. A few days suffice to restore people to health after an attack of African fever and ague, and in a short time flesh and strength are picked up.
There is no effectual substitute for quinine as yet known; its use by subcutaneous injection has not yet been adopted in Angola. Many Portuguese have a prejudice against quinine, and in its stead make use of a common plant called “Fedegozo” (Cassia occidentalis).
The root, which is excessively bitter, is made into decoction. The seeds also are roasted and ground, and their infusion taken either alone, or generally mixed with coffee.
The natives suffer but little from fever and ague, and then it is generally the result of a chill, on the change from the hot to the cold season. Their treatment almost always consists in lying quiet until nature works her own cure, but they also make use of a strong infusion of the leaves of the “Malulo,” an excessively bitter plant (Vernonia (Elephantopus) Senegalensis).
This is a handsome, herbaceous shrub, and is curious from its habit of being (like the nettle with us) the first to take possession of and grow luxuriantly on all bare open places where habitations or plantations have existed. The infusion of this plant is also universally employed by the natives in bowel complaints. A common method they have of curing fever is to induce strong perspiration by squatting over an earthen pot (just removed from the fire) sunk in a hole in the ground, in which “Herva Santa Maria” (Chenopodium ambrosioides) and “Sangue-sangue” have been boiled. The patient is well covered over, and the aromatic vapour-bath soon produces its desired effect. I have seen blacks cured of severe attacks of fever with one or two applications of this simple remedy. “Sangue-sangue” is the name given to the large seed-heads of a strong, tall grass (a species of Cymbopogon), which exhales a very powerful aromatic odour when crushed.
The “Herva Santa Maria” grows very abundantly everywhere in Angola, and, as in other warm countries where it is found, its medicinal properties are held in great repute. It is a small annual plant, generally about a foot and a half high, very green and bushy, and every part of it is hotly and strongly aromatic.