The first upon whom I tried this system of treatment systematically was Lecointe. I had urged part of it upon Danco, but he could not eat the penguin, and when I told him he must, he said he would rather die. When Lecointe came under treatment I told him that if he would follow the treatment carefully I thought he would be out of bed in a week. I did not have this faith in the treatment at that time, but I had confidence in the soundness of Lecointe’s organs and I wished to boom up the man. Lecointe replied by saying, “I will sit on the stove for a month and eat penguins for the rest of my polar life if that will do me good.” (He did sit beside the stove two hours daily for a month, and he ate, by his own choosing, penguin steaks for the balance of his stay in the polar circle. In a week he was about, and in a fortnight he again made his observations, and for the rest of his polar existence he was again one of the strongest men on the _Belgica_). For a number of days the temperature has remained below -30° C. Yesterday and to-day it has ranged from -34° to -37° C., with a strong southerly and westerly wind. With such temperatures and a strong wind it is impossible to exist outside. One freezes the extremities so quickly that it is positively dangerous to be out; but in still weather there is no temperature too low to prevent outdoor work. To-day the ice is separating, leaving leads running eastward and westward, but for a week past the entire horizon has been one solid, unbroken mass. There is no life visible, but we have seen tracks of both the royal and the small penguins. July 15.--The weather continues cold, but clear and calm, the only three qualities which make the antarctic climate endurable during the night. There is now much light. One can read ordinary print at 9 A.M., and at noon the north is flushed with a glory of green and orange and yellow. We are still very feeble. An exercise of one hour sends the pulse up to 130, but we have all learned to like and crave penguin meat. To sleep is our most difficult task, and to avoid work is the mission of everybody. Arctowski says, “We are in a mad-house,” and our humour points that way. July 17.--If we had not fresh meat to eat and an abundance of fuel to give heat, I am sure we would have an alarming mortality in less than a month. Several lives have certainly been saved by eating penguins, and we shall always owe them a debt of gratitude. And now the sun though invisible is rising higher and higher under the horizon, giving us a long dawn from nine until three o’clock. Everybody is advancing in cheerfulness with the rising sun, but physically we are in a deplorable condition. Alcohol, even in small quantities, has now a deleterious effect upon us. We have been accustomed to take light wines at meals, but the wine has a bad effect upon the heart and kidney functions, so much so that we have stopped its use altogether.