igii] AMATEUR DOCTORING 255 
As a result of the seal-flensing to provide a roof for 
Granite Hut, I cut myself rather frequently. This was 
usual and a matter of no moment generally. Seven of 
these cuts healed up in a few days, but one on my right 
hand gave rise to much trouble. We carried a medical 
chest full of pills, and Debenham was sledge doctor and 
knew as much of medicine as Dr. Wilson could get on a 
sheet of notepaper. He felt an expert at snow-blindness, 
frost-bites and dyspepsia, but my hand baffled him. 
However, Gran had served on many vessels in his naval 
training and at first I had great faith in him. He gravely 
felt my pulse, and then the arm-pit. ' Do you feel any 
pain here ? ' I truthfully said ' No ! ' ' No blood poisoning 
in that finger,' says Gran. Next day it was worse, and 
Gran proceeded to lance it with great gusto, with the 
result that the thumb and two fingers swelled double 
normal size. For a week I could not sleep, and I tried all 
sorts of bandages and most of the pills — as expert opinion 
favoured frost-bite, rheumatism, or blood-poisoning. 
Gran remembered aspirin as good for rheumatism — so 
the patient swallowed two. Then he said he meant 
salicylate, so I took two of them ; and then he cheered 
us by telling us how a former invalid with whom he had 
had medical dealings died on his hands ! 
However, on the i6th we sledged to the head of the 
harbour to examine the numerous capes and bays and 
to try and find a path up to the great inland plateau. 
First of all we made for a low dark cape from which the 
Mackay Glacier had receded slightly. From our hut it 
looked just like a black hand stretched out from a snowy 
