In this way you can do many good turns.
David Livingstone, the great missionary and peace-scout, endeared himself to the natives by his cleverness as a doctor.
Also, if you know how to look after yourself you need never have to pay for medicines. The great English poet, Dryden, in his poem, "Cymon and Iphigenia," wrote that it was better to trust to fresh air and exercise than to pay doctors' bills to keep yourself healthy:
Better to hunt in fields for health unbought
Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught;
The wise, for cure, on exercise depend;
God never made his work for man to mend.
KEEP YOURSELF CLEAN.
In the war in South Africa we lost an enormous number of men dying from disease as well as from wounds. The Japs, in their war, lost very few from sickness, and a very small proportion of those who were wounded. What made the difference? Probably a good many things. Our men were not so particular as to what water they drank as the Japs were, and they ate more meat than the Japs; but, also, they did not keep themselves or their clothes very clean—it was often difficult to find water. The Japs, on the other hand, kept themselves very clean, with baths every day.
If you cut your hand when it is dirty it is very likely to fester, and to become very sore; but if your hand is quite clean and freshly washed no harm will come of it, it heals up at once. It was the same with wounds in the war; they became very bad in the case of men who had not kept themselves clean.