Mark Twain's 'watermelon cure'.

摘要

In November of 1901, Mark Twain published a story, "How the Chimney-Sweep Got the Ear of the Emperor"1 that featured a life-saving therapy—the "watermelon-cure." As he wrote the story in autumn of 1900, Twain's frustration with the medical profession had peaked; he was fully convinced that doctors were worthless and dangerous. The "chimney-sweep story" was embedded within another story, "The Man With a Message for the Director-General," and the package was published in The Century Magazine as "Two Little Tales." The plot of the "chimney-sweep story" is straightforward. An Emperor is dying. Physicians have given up hope. A chimney-sweep recommends a slice of watermelon. The Emperor recovers. (The Emperor hangs the incompetent doctors.)