Perhaps it may, my son. You did well to remember it; we will
go to Tent House for it. Fritz, you shall accompany me to assist in
bringing it.
I wished to be alone with Fritz, to consult him about the English
vessel, and was glad of this opportunity. Before I left my wife, I
intended to examine her leg and foot, which were exceedingly painful.
When I was preparing to enter the Church, I had studied medicine and
practical surgery, in order to be able to administer to the bodily
afflictions of my poor parishioners, as well as to their spiritual
sorrows. I knew how to bleed, and could replace a dislocated limb. I had
often made cures; but since my arrival at the island I had neglected my
medical studies, which happily had not been needed. I hoped now,
however, to recall as much of my knowledge as would be sufficient to
cure my poor wife. I examined her foot first, which I found to be
violently sprained. She begged me then to look at her leg, and what was
my distress when I saw it was fractured above the ancle; however, the
fracture appeared simple, without splinters, and easy to cure. I sent
Fritz without delay to procure me two pieces of the bark of a tree,
between which I placed the leg, after having, with the assistance of my
son, stretched it till the two pieces of broken bone united; I then
bound it with bandages of linen, and tied the pieces of bark round the
leg, so that it might not be moved.
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