The Primeval Forest

There in this sorry world of ours goes a great man.-Albert Einstein on Albert SchweitzerIn July of 1913 thirty-eight-year-old medical doctor Albert Schweitzer gave up his position as a respected professor at the University of Strasbourg and celebrated authority on music and philosophy in order to go as a physician to French Equatorial Africa (present-day Gabon). The Primeval Forest is Schweitzer's own fascinating story of these eventful years--a thrilling tale of his amazingly successful attempt to practice modern medicine and surgery in the face of wild elephant raids marauding leopards famine an flood-a story rich in human interest and high drama.Schweitzer describes how he and his wife a qualified nurse worked to establish a hospital in the steaming jungle at Lambaréné. At first they treated patients in the open air amid unbelievably primitive conditions-with few drugs medicines or adequate instruments. But they worked tirelessly caring for as many as forty cases a day battling the misery caused by sleeping sickness leprosy pestilence and plague. And as the years went on they gradually built a more permanent hospital to alleviate the terrible suffering of the Congo people.Here in Dr. Schweitzer's own words is the inspiring and unforgettable account of his years in Africa; his thrilling jungle adventures and his amazing experiences in bringing modern medicine and surgery to the French Congo. The record of Schweitzer's day-by-day experience is told so vividly that a responsive reader cannot fail to relive these stirring events.-Richmond Times-Dispatch