July 14.--Lecointe has given up all hope of ever recovering, and has made out his last instructions. His case seems almost hopeless to me. The unfavourable prognosis has sent another wave of despair over the entire party. Almost everybody is alarmed and coming to me for medical treatment, for real or imaginary troubles. The complaints differ considerably, but the underlying cause is the same in all. We are developing a form of anæmia peculiar to the polar regions. An anæmia which I had noticed before among the members of the first Peary Arctic Expedition, but our conditions are much more serious. To overcome this trouble I have devised a plan of action, which the sailors call the “baking treatment.” Medicament, I find, is of little service. A temporary relief is sometimes effected by well-directed drugs, but the lasting effects are disappointing. Iron and arsenic, and many of the ordinary tonics effective in home anæmias, are entirely inert. After considerable experiment, I have abandoned drugs as an important aid. Fresh food, artificial heat, a buoyant humour, judicious clothing, and the least possible humidity are the conditions which suggest a rational treatment. I should like to take up this subject in detail and give my reasons for this plan of treatment, but the discussions would take us into a long and technical consideration, which I fear would be of interest only to medical men. The plan of treatment in brief is as follows: As soon as the pulse becomes irregular and rises to one hundred beats per minute, with a puffiness of the eyes and swollen ankles, the man is stripped and placed close to a fire for one hour each day. I prohibit all food except milk, cranberry sauce, and fresh meat, either penguin or seal steaks fried in oleomargarine. The patient is not allowed to do anything which will seriously tax the heart. His bedding is dried daily, and his clothing is carefully adjusted to the needs of his occupation. Laxatives are generally necessary, and vegetable bitters, with mineral acids, are a decided help. Strychnine is the only remedy which has given me any service in regulating the heart, and this I have used as a routine. But surely one of the most important things was to raise the patient’s hopes and instil a spirit of good humour. When at all seriously afflicted, the men felt that they would surely die, and to combat this spirit of abject hopelessness was my most difficult task. My comrades, however, were excellent aids, for as soon as one of our number was down, everybody made it his business to create an air of good cheer about him. [Illustration: OSGOOD ART COLORTYPE CO., CHI. & N. Y. Twilight Amid The Antarctic Ice]