Medicine | Africa

Image Title:
Huts for sick natives

Notes:
“Situated as Mpwapwa is at the junction of many of the great East Central African slave-routes, a medical man living there naturally obtained many patients from the passing caravans (Pruen, 306-307). Those so obtained were, of course, absolutely destitute, and needed to be provided, not only with medicine, but also with clothing, food, and lodge. For lodging them we fund that it was cheapest to house them by twos, building for this purpose a sort of large beehive, six feet high, and seven feet in diameter at the base. This was built of a light framework of bough, and thatched outside right down to the ground. Two six-foot logs parallel to each other were then laid along the floor inside, leaving a space between them for a wood-fire for warmth at night, and having the spaces between each of them and the hut walls filled with dried grass to form a soft bed (Pruen, 307-308). A few thorns twisted into the thatch outside at the base of the wall all round prevented hyenas from scratching through any unprotected part at night. These little huts only cost about seven shilling each, and they were especially useful for isolating infectious cases, as the hut could be burnt down without much loss of money as soon as the patient was well” (Pruen, p.308).