ABSTRACT
About a week after my return from Brass, I was seized with a fever; and finding it very strong upon me, I abstracted twenty ounces of blood from my left arm, which gave me considerable relief. On the third day I suffered a little more pain in my head, and felt very unwell : the symptoms were the same as already described. I gave orders for my head to be shaved and blistered, and also the nape of my neck, and commenced taking twelve grains of calomel in three doses every six hours. In about seventy-six hours after the attack, I became delirious, and was informed that I continued so for nearly a fortnight, attempting to throw myself overboard ; a feat which I once had nearly performed, and was only prevented effecting my design by the watch on deck. I continued in a very precarious state for twenty-nine days, during which time I took nothing but water, with a little biscuit soaked in it.
