The Personal Life of David Livingstone: Chiefly from his Unpublished Journals and Correspondence in the Possession of His FamilyBlaikie, William Garden
Religion
The Personal Life of David Livingstone: Chiefly from his Unpublished Journals and Correspondence in the Possession of His Family
Blaikie, William Garden
Livingstone, David, 1813-1873
"On returning to England, after his first great journey of
discovery, he and Mrs. Livingstone stayed in my house for
some time, and I had frequent conversations with him on
subjects connected with his African life, especially on such
as related to natural history and medicine, on which he had
gathered a fund of information. His observation of malarious
diseases, and the methods of treatment adopted by both the
natives and Europeans, had led him to form very definite and
decided views, especially in reference to the use of
purgatives, preliminary to, and in conjunction with, quinine
and other acknowledged febrifuge medicines. He had, while
staying with me, one of those febrile attacks to which
persons who have once suffered from malarious disease are so
liable, and I could not fail to remark his sensible
observations thereon, and his judicious management of his
sickness. He had a great natural predilection for medical
science, and always took great interest in all that related
to the profession. I endeavored to persuade him to commit to
writing the results of his medical observations and
experience among the natives of Africa, but he was too much
occupied with the preparation of his Journal for the press to
enable him to do this. Moreover, as he often said, writing
was a great drudgery to him. He, however, attended with me
the meetings of some of the medical societies, and gave some
verbal accounts of his medical experience which greatly
interested his audience. His remarks on climates, food, and
customs of the natives, in reference to the origin and spread
of disease, evinced the same acuteness of observation which
characterized all the records of his life. He specially
commented on the absence of consumption and all forms of
tubercular disease among the natives, and connected this with
their constant exposure and out-of-door life.
"After leaving my house he had lodgings in Chelsea, and used
frequently to come and spend the Sunday afternoon with my
family, often bringing his sister, who was staying with him,
and his two elder children. It was beautiful to observe how
thoroughly he enjoyed domestic life and the society of
children, how strong was his attachment to his own family
after his long and frequent separations from them, and how
entirely he had retained his simplicity of character.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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