He afterwards confessed that he was trying to
tire me out, in which he failed signally, for I have always been,
and am still, able to walk very long distances without fatigue. He
had taken four of his fellow-pupils from Hentze's over the same
road, and they had all collapsed, and had to be driven back to the
railway in a hay-cart, in the last stages of exhaustion. Finding
that he could not walk me down, Vieweg developed an odd sort of
liking for me, just as I had admired him for standing up to his
knees in very cold water for a couple of hours on end whilst
fishing. So a queer sort of friendship sprang up between me and
this taciturn youth. The only subject which moved Vieweg to
eloquence was quinine, out of which his father had made his
fortune. I confess that at that time I knew no more about that
admirable prophylactic than the Queen of Sheba knew about dry-fly
fishing, and had not the faintest idea of how quinine was made.
Vieweg, warming to his subject, explained to me that the cinchona
bark was treated with lime and alcohol, and informed me that his
father now obtained the bark from Java instead of from South
America as formerly.
Pages:
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257