IN THE DESERT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 75, 20 July 1914, Page 4

IN THE DESERT.

Without anaesthesia or modern instruments, native surgeons among the Bedouins of the Algerian hinterland have become so skilful that they do not hesitate to undertake operations as delicate as trepanning. This report is brought by H. Hylton-Simpson, who, accompanied by his wife, has just returned from a scientific expedition among'these almost unknown nomadic tribes of the desert. The explorer and his wife lived among the natives and established the closest relations ‘with the ruling shieks of remote villages. They found that surgery had grown to be a really skilled profession. HyltonSimpson was lucky enough to com© into contact with a friendly Arabian physician, who arranged a meeting for him with eight of the tribal surgeons. From them lie collected a mass of interesting information and a valuable collection of native surgical instruments. Their saws, lancets and probes are of the crudest design, but prove highly effective in the hands of the native operators. The only t ra i n ' ing these native surgeons have -is instruction from their fathers. Very few of them are aide to read or write. Trepanning operations are probably more common in this country than anywhere else in the world because of the frequency with which the natives resort to stone-throwing in a fight. The use of an anaesthetic is unknown and pain is regarded with such contempt that the people seem impervious to it. Hylton-Simpson saw one case in which a boy was operated on for fifteen days for the removal of a small piece of skull. The operation was successful and the patient recovered. Besides surgery the natives claim to have discovered two hundred cures for various diseases.