SUNSTROKE AND ITS TREATMENT. THE HOSPITAL 39 
bent his head so far that the sun shone upon his neck 
below his helmet. He, too, was for a time at death’s 
door. 
Children, however, are less affected than adults. 
Mrs. Christol’s little daughter not long ago ran un- 
observed out of the house and walked about in the sun 
for nearly ten minutes without taking any harm. I am 
now so used to this state of things that I shudder every 
time I see people represented in illustrated papers as 
walking about bareheaded in the open air, and I have 
to reassure myself that even white people can do this 
with impunity in Europe. '' 
The skipper of the little steamer, who had himself 
been down with sunstroke, had been kind enough to 
offer to fetch me to N’Gomo, and my wife went with me 
to help to nurse the patient. Following the advice of 
an experienced colonial doctor, I treated the sunstroke 
as if it were complicated with malaria, and gave intra- 
muscular injections of a strong solution of quinine. It 
has been proved that sunstroke is especially dangerous 
to people who are already infected with malaria, and 
many doctors even assert that quite half the symptoms 
are to be put down to the malarial attack which is 
brought on by the sunstroke. A further necessity in 
such cases, when the patient can take nothing or brings 
everything up again, is to introduce sufficient fluid into 
the system to avert such injury to the kidneys as might 
endanger life. This is effected best with a pint of dis- 
tilled and sterilised water containing 65 grains (4J 
grams) of the purest kitchen salt, which is introduced 
under the skin or into a vein in the arm with a cannula. 
On our return from N’Gomo we were agreeably sur- 
prised to hear that the corrugated iron hospital ward 
