BOOK OF THE WEEK

Taranaki Daily News, 13 April 1935, Page 13 (Supplement)

BOOK OF THE WEEK

“BUSH” TO HARLEY STREET

(By

U.S.)

“Then and Now,” by Alexander Francis. Chapman & Hall Ltd., London. A. J. Fyfe Ltd.. New Plymouth.

A doctor who was bom in a hut built in an area that is now a flourishing subburb of Brisbane but was then primeval forest; who worked on a cattle station before going Home to study medicine; who practised in several “bush” districts of Queensland; and who ultimately returned to London as a Harley Street specialist, is likely to have accumulated some interesting experiences. Dr. Francis was too young to remember the worst of the pioneering experiences of his parents. To him the freedom of colonial ways, even the limitations of poverty, were natural. His father had pinned his faith on growing cotton in Queensland, but the venture failed, and ultimately he became a Stipendiary Magistrate. This entailed transfer of his family from place to place, very often to townships grown around the temporary terminus of a railway in process of formation. It was not until Dr. Francis joined the steamer for London that he had ever seen electric lighting, and his introduction to student life at Cambridge was a series of novel experiences to the youth from the Queensland backblocks. He found “it was commonly supposed that Australia was a little island on the other side of the world inhabited by the descendants of convicts,”, but the Australian found people ready to be very' good to him, and while still a student at a London, hospital he became engaged to one of the nurses on the staff. Dr. Francis married soon after having qualified, and returned to Queensland and began practice in Brisbane as a throat, nose and ear specialist. He was doing well, but his wife’s health made a change necessary, and after a stay at Toowoomba and Warwick the family moved to Barcaldine, inland from Rockhampton, where Dr. - Francis was appointed medical officer to the hospital. The doctor evidently enjoyed his bush experiences and he tells of some amusing professional experiences. “On one occasion,” he writes, “I was summoned to see a Chinaman who could speak no English. He was suffering from rheumatic fever with high temperature, for which I prescribed a mixture. When I called on the following morning the interpreter would not allow me to see the patient until I had accepted another guinea, because my medicine had had such a wonderful effect. I was pleased to find that the pains had gone and the temperature was again normal, and then I discovered that they had rubbed my mixture over the man’s legs instead of giving it in tablespoonful doses!” A Dane, an unqualified chemist, was in the habit of treating patients who often reached the hospital ultimately as far more serious cases than they would have been had they not listened to the quack. “Once he got hold of a case of typhoid and told him if he went to the hospital he would be kept in’’bed and-starved until he died, whereas if he let the chemist treat him he could stay at the hotel, eat what he liked, and would soon be well.” When the man’s condition became serious the chemist sent him to the hospital, but was rather upset when the doctor told him the patient was likely to die that night and if he did the quack would be charged with manslaughter. The patient recovered, but the chemist decided to seek “fresh woods and pastures new.” He told Dr. Francis before he left that he could not under--stand him. The doctor “had always been friendly, and yet had.ruined him, whereas my predecessor hgd fought him and done him no harm. He was not altogether rained, however, because he offered to sell me for £lOOO the two largest hotels and a number of shops in the principal street, which properties he had acquired from the proceeds of his practice, for he had arrived in the town with nothing a few years previously.” Breaking in horses, cricket and the usual bush shooting and sports filled in the doctor’s spare time. He had wide itesponsibility, the nearest doctor being 60 miles away, and there. were about 2000 people in the district served by the hospital. Barcaldine suffered for years from the curse of western Queensland, prolonged droughts. The climate is very hot and the doctor tells of some curious home made contrivances for overcoming the drawbacks of such a climate to patients’ recovery. His wife died, however, and Dr. Francis removed to Dalby.

There he had an amusing case in which a horse thief posed as a case of “spinal meningitis.” His malingering was suspected «and ultimately he vfes told to leave. “The wardsmen and nurses thought that I was most heartless, and it took them an hour to get the man dressed and carried to the front gate, where they left him outside on the ground, propped up against the paling fence, because he was unable to stand. About an hour later a police constable arrived at the hospital with a warrant for the man’s arrest on a charge of horse stealing.” The “poor patient” was missing. He had been seen running down the line at a great pace,. joined a goods train, and got safely over the border into New South Wales where in those days he could not be arrested for an offence committed in another colony. Dr. Francis tells a good navy story in connection with a Torres Straits pilot, Captain Mervyn Jones, who had tried with • success some of the doctor’s prescriptions for people in New Guinea who had no doctor within reach. The pilotage from Thursday Island to Brisbane is still recognised as requiring exceedingly careful seamanship. Fifty years ago it was regarded as one of the most dangerous passages for navigation in the world. Captain Jones was piloting five gunboats, and because they were late was told to break the rule that ships inside the Barrier reef travelled by day only. “When steaming along on a clear evening, although his position was correct according to the chart Jones was doubtful and signalled the gunboats to stop, When daylight came a reef was seen half a mile ahead, and had they gone on the whole fleet would have been wrecked.” Jones was suspended, but the end of the inquiry was the public thanks of the Admiral for having saved the gunboats—and incidentally the Admiral’s reputation—from destruction.

These are cheerful, interesting reminiscences of a long and useful career. Dr. Francis has the good sense not to regard himself or his narrative too seriously, and his autobiography forms a chatty refreshing volume.

The Golden River series for children. Cloth bound at 2s 6d each, postage 3d. “Alices’s Adventures in Wonderland,” “Stories from Grimm,” “The Ugly Duckling and other stories,” “Tom Thumb,” “Kingsley’s Heroes,” “The six Gifts and other stories” retold from “The Earthly Paradise” by William Morris. Build a library for the children in your own home. A. J. Fyfe, Ltd, “The Book People,” New Plymouth*