Although I have, on some occasions, written for the medical journals, I am quite aware that there may be many faults of style and finish in this my first effort at a book; such shortcomings I would ask the reader to overlook. It is but a plain, unvarnished account of a journey through a territory hitherto but little known, and as such I trust it may be of interest to the majority of my readers.
CHAPTER I.
LEAVE ENGLAND FOR PARIS—DRUGS AND CLOTHING REQUIRED—A “SLEEBY” GERMAN—TURIN.
I was bound for the Soudan, and had arranged to meet my party at Brindisi on the 21st of November, 1881. I therefore sent on all my heavy baggage by Peninsular and Oriental steamer to Suez; included in this was a good-sized medicine chest, well stocked with drugs for the relief or cure of nearly all the ills that flesh is heir to.
I am an old campaigner, having served as a surgeon-major in the Turkish Army in 1876 and ’77, consequently had a very good idea of what drugs would be most necessary and useful. Knowing also that we were going to a very hot part of the globe, I took as few liquids, such as tinctures, &c., as possible.
Everything that I could have made in the form of pills I got Messrs. Richardson and Co., of Leicester, to do; their coated pills stood the journey splendidly, and could always be depended on.
It will not be necessary to enumerate all the contents of the medicine-chest; but I think it might be useful to those who take a similar journey if I mention a few things that ought certainly to be taken, and they are the following: A good stock of quinine, oil of male-fern, as tape-worm is by no means uncommon; ipecacuanha, for that formidable complaint, dysentery; castor oil, opium, Dover’s powder, iodoform, chlorodyne, calomel, blue pill, and various other mercurial preparations, much required for complaints in the Soudan; iodide of potash, carbonate of soda, powdered alum, sulphate of zinc, sugar of lead, solution of atropine, solution of ammonia, Epsom salts, a large bottle of purgative pills, nitrate of silver (lunar caustic), carbolic acid, lint, a few dozen bandages, and plaster in a tin. Ointments are useless, as they soon become quite liquid in such a hot climate, and run all over the medicine chest, making a great mess.
Clothing.—Of course every gentleman will be provided with the ordinary European clothing for use in civilized parts, but such things as nicely-polished boots, collars, neckties, and so forth, may be easily dispensed with in the Soudan. The most necessary articles are two or three dozen pairs summer socks, half-a-dozen thin flannel shirts, three or four silk shirts, three pairs of brown leather lace-up boots, and a comfortable pair of slippers, three or four suits of thin light clothing, a strong jean coat and trousers, that will not be easily torn by the thorns whilst hunting, and a pith helmet.