{"id":"01KG8AKXGGV8ZN7NJVVAK0RFNV","cid":"bafkreicvkzkvtnxngbhdw5wdpffbffon6p6ujioadz6pml4ehfeq7xi4mu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4899,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":4829,"text":"spirits. But, asserting his privilege as physician to the first reading\r\nof the labels, Doctor Long Ghost was at last permitted to take\r\npossession of the basket.\r\n\r\nThe first thing lighted upon was a large vial, labelled—“For\r\nWilliam—rub well in.”\r\n\r\nThis vial certainly had a spirituous smell; and upon handing it to the\r\npatient, he made a summary internal application of its contents. The\r\ndoctor looked aghast.\r\n\r\nThere was now a mighty commotion. Powders and pills were voted mere\r\ndrugs in the market, and the holders of vials were pronounced lucky\r\ndogs. Johnson must have known enough of sailors to make some of his\r\nmedicines palatable—this, at least, Long Ghost suspected. Certain it\r\nwas, everyone took to the vials; if at all spicy, directions were\r\nunheeded, their contents all going one road.\r\n\r\nThe largest one of all, quite a bottle indeed, and having a sort of\r\nburnt brandy odour, was labelled—“For Daniel, drink freely, and until\r\nrelieved.” This Black Dan proceeded to do; and would have made an end\r\nof it at once, had not the bottle, after a hard struggle, been snatched\r\nfrom his hands, and passed round, like a jovial decanter. The old tar\r\nhad complained of the effects of an immoderate eating of fruit.\r\n\r\nUpon calling the following morning, our physician found his precious\r\nrow of patients reclining behind the stocks, and doing “as well as\r\ncould be expected.”\r\n\r\nBut the pills and powders were found to have been perfectly inactive:\r\nprobably because none had been taken. To make them efficacious, it was\r\nsuggested that, for the future, a bottle of Pisco should be sent along\r\nwith them. According to Flash Jack’s notions, unmitigated medical\r\ncompounds were but dry stuff at the best, and needed something good to\r\nwash them down.\r\n\r\nThus far, our own M.D., Doctor Long Ghost, after starting the frolic,\r\nhad taken no further part in it; but on the physician’s third visit, he\r\ntook him to one side, and had a private confabulation. What it was,\r\nexactly, we could not tell; but from certain illustrative signs and\r\ngestures, I fancied that he was describing the symptoms of some\r\nmysterious disorganization of the vitals, which must have come on\r\nwithin the hour. Assisted by his familiarity with medical terms, he\r\nseemed to produce a marked impression. At last, Johnson went his way,\r\npromising aloud that he would send Long Ghost what he desired.\r\n\r\nWhen the medicine boy came along the following morning, the doctor was\r\nthe first to accost him, walking off with a small purple vial. This\r\ntime, there was little else in the basket but a case-bottle of the\r\nburnt brandy cordial, which, after much debate, was finally disposed of\r\nby someone pouring the contents, little by little, into the half of a\r\ncocoa-nut shell, and so giving all who desired a glass. No further\r\nmedicinal cheer remaining, the men dispersed.\r\n\r\nAn hour or two passed, when Flash Jack directed attention to my long\r\nfriend, who, since the medicine boy left, had not been noticed till\r\nnow. With eyes closed, he was lying behind the stocks, and Jack was\r\nlifting his arm and letting it fall as if life were extinct. On running\r\nup with the rest, I at once connected the phenomenon with the\r\nmysterious vial. Searching his pocket, I found it, and holding it up,\r\nit proved to be laudanum. Flash Jack, snatching it from my hand in a\r\nrapture, quickly informed all present what it was; and with much glee,\r\nproposed a nap for the company. Some of them not comprehending him\r\nexactly, the apparently defunct Long Ghost—who lay so still that I a\r\nlittle suspected the genuineness of his sleep—was rolled about as an\r\nillustration of the virtues of the vial’s contents. The idea tickled\r\neverybody mightily; and throwing themselves down, the magic draught was\r\npassed from hand to hand. Thinking that, as a matter of course, they\r\nmust at once become insensible, each man, upon taking his sip, fell\r\nback, and closed his eyes.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJFY2HXAXH018FSHPPHP","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKXGGJY95Z0CN5P9NKVTX","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKXGRZ2PV1DD2BNBBQ7N1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:19.984Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:27.332Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}