38 III. FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 
hill, or that they could have watched the eloquent 
gestures with which an old woman with heart complaint 
described how, thanks to digitalis, she could once more 
breathe and sleep, because the medicine had made 
“ the worm ” crawl right away down to her feet ! 
As I look back over the work of two months and a 
half, I can only say that a doctor is needed, terribly 
needed, here ; that for a huge distance round the 
natives avail themselves of his help, and that with 
comparatively small means he can accomplish a quite 
disproportionate amount of good. The need is terrible. 
" Here, among us, everybody is ill,” said a young man 
to me a few days ago. ” Our country devours its own 
children,” was the remark of an old chief. 
