“You think yourself a clever woman, but you could not explain that phenomenon so simply that a child could understand it.”
Miss Hamilton assured him that she could, and proceeded to do so with the aid of a candle and an orange. In the evening when, according to his custom, Abdur Rahman held a reception, he told his people that they were all very stupid and that he was sure not one of them could explain the eclipse. Many wild suggestions were made, until the Amir attempted to give the demonstration that Miss Hamilton had shown him. Since she kindly came to his assistance it went off so successfully that the company were deeply impressed with the Amir’s wisdom.
Multitudes of ailing people flocked to Miss Hamilton for advice, some of them sleeping outside her hospital all night in order to be attended to the first thing in the morning. This lady doctor was also the first to introduce the Western system of vaccination into Afghanistan, where almost the greatest scourge is small-pox, and where the Amir does not allow conscientious objectors!
As one foreign physician has left Kabul and another has taken his place, the newcomer has found that the hospital buildings of his predecessor have become in the interval the premises of a school, a depôt for military stores, or have fallen altogether into ruin. The establishment which has served longest as an hospital was built for that purpose by Nasr Ullah Khan in compliment to Mrs. Daly, who was so long associated with Miss Hamilton as medical adviser to the harem. It contained 100 beds. This building is now a magazine for artillery stores, while a second, which filled a similar purpose under Dr. Gray, is now a school. During the eight years in which Mrs. Daly was engaged in medical work in Afghanistan she held the appointment of private physician to Abdur Rahman’s queen, Bibi Halima, besides filling the post of medical adviser to the Kabul Government. Mrs. Daly has stated that between three hundred to five hundred patients daily visited her, and that, while very interested in her work, she was sorely harassed by the unceasing espionage of which she was the very conscious victim. The high opinion which the Government of Afghanistan formed of Mrs. Daly’s services is aptly illustrated by a testimonial from Habib Ullah, which was presented to her in the autumn of 1902. It ran:
In the Name of God.
I myself certify that Mrs. Kate Daly ranks above all people in her zeal for the work and in her attendance to patients. I am pleased with her services, and the treatment of my two daughters; of the workmen in the factories that were so seriously injured, and of my subjects in general whom she treats from day to day.
Habib Ullah,
Amir of Afghanistan.
September 20, 1902.
In the following year, 1903, the European residents of Kabul subscribed through a committee of three to an expression of gratitude to Mrs. Daly in the following terms:
Kabul, November 20, 1903.