Doctor John Dolittle, M.D., is that remarkable man who learns to speak the languages of the animals, thanks to the help of Polynesia, his polyglot parrot friend. In this, his first adventure, the Doctor is called from his home in the West Country town of Puddleby on the Marsh, to deal with a deadly epidemic deep in the African jungle. This edition has LoftingÕs original English text (with a few small amendments as discussed in the Foreword), and it accompanies our first-ever Cornish translation of the tale. Cornish students may wish to read LoftingÕs original text either for pleasure, or perhaps to help them through any tricky passages in the Cornish.