16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
an exceptionally long period without fresh water
to wash our clothes he developed saltsores,
he thought his suspicions were confirmed:
it is true that his mind was very much
perturbed at the time for reasons that it would
be tedious to relate and almost impossible to
convey – the distress of jealousy, imagined illusage
and homesickness entered into it – and
that his lesions were far more important than
any I have seen at any time. Yet even so, how
a man of his experience could persuade himself
that they were syphilitic I cannot tell; but
persuaded he was, and he dosed himself privately
with calomel and guaiacum. Naturally
enough these had no effect; so he took to the
corrosive sublimate.'
'Corrosive sublimate?' cried Geary.
'Yes, sir,' said Stephen, 'and in such amounts
that I hesitate to name them. He brought himself
very low indeed before he told me: our re-