HIGHLIGHTS FROM C.M.S. MEDICAL MISSIONS.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 26, Issue 11, 1 November 1936, Page 1

HIGHLIGHTS FROM C.M.S. MEDICAL MISSIONS.

Border Tribes of India. — During the autumn I made a tour through Waziristan m company with the Assistant-Director of Intelligence. It was extremely interesting to explore the lands behind the administration border of India, whence so many of the wild tribesmen come down to our hospital for treatment. These districts, however, are not yet open to mission evangelism. Returning patients from the hospital at Peshawar are the only possible missionaries to their own tribesmen. Kigema. — One man, about fortyfive years old, had been for eighteen years crippled by yaws and rheumatism, and had never for all those years stood upright. A series of tenotomies straightened his legs, and he stood erect. He said he felt quite giddy at the height when he stood up! The other day he walked here from his home, six hours' march away over a big range of hills. At first he was a case-hardened heathen, but the love of Christ shown forth m our hospital staff, as well as his remarkable recovery, made him turn to God. After some hesitation he asked for an evangelist; and so he opened a new province to the Gospel. This required no little courage, for there was hardly anyone who would stand by him m his first confession of faith. But a new church is now established there with about fifty adherents. East Africa.— Tuberculosis is found here m bones, joints, glands and lungs. Very few of the lung cases do well. • Sarro was for years a dresser here. He learned to recognise pulmonary tuberculosis when severe. He often saw the germs under the microscope, and once saw the post mortem findings on a fatal case. One day his good friend John came to me m concern. John was the microscope boy, and on his own he had examined Sarro's sputum and found he had T.B. I had been trying to keep it from everyone but the boy's father; but you cannot keep secrets m Africa. John told Sarro, showing him the slide. His decline was quite rapid

when he was told. After it was evident to the family that Sarro was ill, a diviner was consulted, who conr vinced them that Dora, an aunt of Sarro's, had bewitched him, and that he was dying because of the spell she had cast upon him. He died a few weeks later, firmly convinced that he had died of witchcraft. Gaza (Palestine): Medical and Surgical Work. — The hospital stands high m the estimation and affection of the people of the neighbourhood. The direct vision laryngoscope has been found most valuable. A two-mil piece, a coin the size of a penny, firmly gripped by a muscle behind the larynx, was successfully removed from a small boy, after its position was verified by radioscopy. The doctor's fee was two mils (one halfpenny), not from the parent's pocket, but from the patient's throat! Several leeches have also been removed through the same treatment. One memorable case had his leech popping its tail up and down between the vocal cords. The suction pad was firmly fixed lower down the trachea. When the patient learned the knack of prolonging his expiration, that elusive tail was soon m the grip of the forceps, which made the leech loosen its suction hold at the other end, and it was soon extracted.