Page:California Digital Library (IA recollectionsofe00abeliala).pdf/218

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
186
Recollections of
[Ch. XVI.

and he always found himself better after it, feeling convinced that if he left it off, he should soon become ill. One of his principal specifics was a warm salt water bath. Mr. O'Meara told us that having recommended Napoleon a dose of medicine, soon after he came to St. Helena, he answered him by a slap in the face, and told him if he were not better on the morrow, he should have recourse to his own remedy—abstinence and a bath. He was very fond of asking anatomical questions, and often fancied he had disease of the heart, and made O'Meara count its pulsations. He constantly complained of illness from the exposed situation of Longwood, the wind continually beating in his face, or the sun scorching his brain; he used to observe, when at the Briars, that he never suffered any ailment, for there he had shady and sheltered walks. Certainly Longwood was very bleak, and scarcely any vegetables would grow upon it, except