[Algiers] 8 April* (Saturday) 1882 

Dear Frep, 

At 4 o’clock yesterday afternoon I was examined by Dr Stephann. 
Despite the changeable weather, which had again brought on a per- 
sistent cold, he was very satisfied; found that the épanchement’ low 
down (to the left of my chest) had almost completely disappeared; the 
one on my back (low down on the left) being rather more stubborn. 
Yesterday he gave this a special lambasting by painting it with col- 
lodion cantharidal.: The result was most acute pain and, thanks to the 
‘painting’, a sleepless night (from 7 to 8 April), but this morning there 
has also been a Most EFFECTIVE PUMPING OF WATER from the blisters that 
have formed. So I have no doubt that this offending spot will also cap- 
itulate in the very near future. My assistant-doctor, Mr Casthelaz, 
had to work away for half an hour in my flourishing watermelon 
plantation, after which I was made to lie in bed until déeuner* at half 
past eleven; for after bandaging the drawing off, drop by drop, of any 
residual fluid works best in that position. 

On the other hand Stephann found my cough somewhat worse 
(only relatively, however, for the cough had reached a nadir), a con- 

* March in the ms.- effusion-* cantharidic col!odion -? luncheon 

sequence of the absurd weather; for 4 days this week the mornings were 
fine enough for walks; since yesterday afternoon it has never stopped 
raining; in the night and today THE RAIN ASSUMED THE ‘caractére torrentiel’; 
today there has been a feeble attempt at lighting the fire in the 
dining-room, but these fireplaces don’t in fact seem to exist for that 
purpose, BUT ONLY FOR SHOW'S SAKE. 

After déeuner I retired for a nap at 2 o'clock to make up in part for 
last night, but by some infernal chance the courts are on vacation this 
week and next. So my plan was thwarted by the otherwise most ami- 
able juge Fermé who didn’t release me until about 5 p.m. when din- 
ner time was approaching. Fermé told me amongst other things that 
during his carriére on the bench a form of torture has been used (and 
this happens ‘regularly’) to extract confessions from Arabs; naturally 
it is done (like the English in India) by the ‘police’; the judge ts sup. 
POSED TO KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ALL oF IT. On the other hand, he says that 
when, for example, a murder is committed by an Arab gang, usually 
with robbery in view, and the actual miscreants are in the course of 
time duly apprehended, tried and executed, this is not regarded as 
sufficient atonement by the injured colonist family. They demand 
INTO THE BARGAIN the ‘pulling in’ of at least half a dozen innocent Arabs. 
But this is resisted by the French judges and particularly the cours 
@’appel,* though now and again the life of an individual, isolated judge 
may be threatened by the colonists if he does not provisionally 
consent (his competence extends no further) to having a dozen in- 
nocent Arabs locked up for suspected murder, burglary, etc., and 
involving them in the investigation. However we are aware that when 
a European colonist dwells among the ‘lesser breeds’, either as a set- 
tler or simply on business, he generally regards himself as even more 
inviolable than handsome William I. Still, when it comes to bare- 
faced arrogance and presumptuousness vis-a-vis the ‘lesser breeds’, to 
a grisly, Moloch-like obsession with atonement, the British and 
Dutch outdo the French. 

Pumps’ family MISSION shows great promise,? as opposed to Hynd- 
man’s political mission which might be regarded as problematical. It 
serves the laddie right that your note’ should have annoyed him, 
especially since he took these liberties with me only because he was 
counting on my own inability, for ‘considerations of propaganda’, to 
compromise him in public.?9! He knew that well enough. 

a 

courts of appeal-” See this volume, p. 228. 

Scandalmonger Bodenstedt and Friedrich Vischer-Sewer-Aesthete 
are the Horace and Virgil of William I.?9? 

Apropos. The Kélnische Zettung’s article on Skobelev you sent me is 
most interesting. 

This note won’t leave today (Saturday), for there are no ‘paquebots’* 
at all to Marseilles on Mondays, Wednesdays or Saturdays; but by way of 
exception a paquebot leaves Algiers on a Sunday at I p.m. and letters for 
it must be delivered to the post office by 11 o’clock in the morning 
(Sunday); the Hétel Victoria, Algiers, despatches a messenger with 
the letters early on Sunday mornings. On the other days, when there is 
a paquebot from Algiers to Marseilles, departure is at 5.30 in the after- 
noon. 

But I wanted to get these lines off by tomorrow, since Dr Steph- 
ann’s last examination was so especially favourable. 

Best wishes to everyone. 

Your 

Moor