Page:Rowland--The Mountain of Fears.djvu/20

  is obtained from the unexpanded flower-heads of the"

"Artemisia maritima—yes—I know the plant but the active principle might occur elsewhere?"

"Possibly"

"It is wonderful," mused Leyden, in the self-communicative tone that was often difficult to follow—"the microscopic filament that makes or unmakes a man; the minute neurons which carry such a potent impulse—like the flash crossing a continent on a tiny wire to send two great nations to war. The wire is short-circuited, the nation disgraced; the neuron short-circuited, the individual disgraced. Such a thing once happened to me, Doctor.

"This was in Papua, an awesome country which holds in its dark recesses many of the things one wants—and most of those which one does not. I had gone there with two other white men to look for gold. It is a marvelous country, Doctor; I do not think there is