MISS IRENE FOURIE AND ASSISTANTS, IN AFRICA, WITH SOME OF THEIR PATIENTS
At the Nyasaland Dispensary
MISS IRENE A. FOURIE
IN this land of sultry middays, the sun, the school bell, and the mission all start together.
The hospital first claims our attention. There an anxious mother with a very sick child awaited us this morning. After we had treated the little fellow, a boy came to ask that an ointment be sent to one of the out schools. By the time I had this made up and dispatched, the patients began to come in. Some were better, and gratefully said so, while others said "No," and looked reproachfully at us. One attributed miraculous results to the dose of Epsom salts given the day before.
One case this morning was a boy with ulcers on arms and legs. These were cleansed and dressed immediately. Next came a mother with a child whose foot was in a very bad condition, caused by jiggers. We treated the foot to an alternate hot and cold bath, and dressed it, thus disposing of the case till to-morrow.
In a litter is brought a boy who has a large boil in one of the armpits. One of my assistants began fomenting the boil while I attended another case, a boy with a sore throat; and then in walked one of our teachers, looking very miserable. We found him to be suffering from an attack of tonsillitis, and set about trying to make him comfortable. Our present hospital consists of only one small room. We have a vapor bath, which serves for vapor bath, cot, table, etc., as occasion demands. He lay on the vapor bath, and my assistant fomented his neck while I attended to other cases. After a good fomenting, I painted his throat with iodine, had him gargle a solution, and then applied a heating compress.
The next case was a little boy suffering of malarial fever and itch. A baby with a badly burned arm was then brought in. His mother had malarial fever. Next a woman brought her two children, one having itch, and the other a severe cold and cough.
Then entered a woman with a small child whose head was covered with awful sores. The next was another itch case; and when we thought we were about through, in came another schoolboy with a bad foot, due to tropical ulcers. We then had a girl with an ulcer on the leg, and thus ended the two hours before breakfast.
We had breakfast at 8:20, then the Sabbath school lesson portion was studied for the day.
After breakfast, the boil that I mentioned was lanced, washed, and dressed. Later in the afternoon, when the boy was visited to see how he was, he had taken off the bandage, and taken out the packing, and was finding great comfort lying on some green banana leaves.
I then spent some time studying the language, and also attended to the dinner.
After dinner, I again studied, had three more cases, and then it was supper time.
Thinking the day's work done, I settled down to my lesson in the language, when a little girl was brought to me with a cut on the head. After attending to the child, I had my lesson.
