Literature: Books of Albert Schweitzer concerning medicine in the African rain forest

Medical reports from Africa:
1) On the edge of the primeval forest (orig. German: Zwischen Wasser und Urwald (Edition Haupt, Berne 1921 - Spanish: Entre el agua y la selva virgen)
2) Letters from Lambarene 1924-1927 (orig. German: Briefe aus Lambarene 1924-1927)
3) Out of My Life & Thought (orig. German: Aus meinem Leben und Denken 1931 - Spanish: Mi vida y pensamientos)

Other sources

Sources for the time from 1924-1927 in Lambarene are also the reviews of the C.H.Beck Edition, which were mainly written for the donors of the hospital:
-- Messages from Lambarene. First and second review (spring 1924 - autumn 1925). C.H.Beck Edition, 164 pages
-- Messages from Lambarene. Third review (autumn 1925-summer 1927). C.H.Beck-Verlag, 74 pages
The reviews are also available in Swedish, English and Dutch, English with the title: "More from the Primeval Forest" (Life + Thought, p.219)

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Lambarene - from April 21, 1924: Concentration camp-like conditions in Albert Schweitzer's hospital

Dysentery and famine come together:

until October 19, 1924
Albert Schweitzer is a doctor and builder in one and can only offer medical basic service
(Letters from Lambarene, p.539)

"How did I suffer from the fact that so many examinations of patients that should have been performed were not carried out because time and energy were not enough, even with the highest tension of energy! And what unrest it caused me to be with the such energetic and dangerous cures as some tropical diseases require, could not control the patient enough. How often should the microscope and test tube have been questioned and remained unquestioned! In surgery only the bare minimum was undertaken. " (Letters from Lambarene, p.539)

[There is the question so why Albert Schweitzer doesn't take a carpenter from Strasbourg with him!]

Conditions similar to concentration camps in 1924-1926: rooms without windows
The rooms for the patients consist only of dark, dull rooms with damp earth floors (letters from Lambarene, p.678). Albert Schweitzer quote:

"What have I suffered in those years from having to put them together in dull, dark rooms with moist earth floors!" (Letters from Lambarene, p.678)

Conditions similar to concentration camps 1924-1926: The sick barrack with a perforated roof in the rainy season - colds and deaths among patients
-- Albert Schweitzer can bring another 200 leaf bricks, but it is still not enough for the big barracks of the sick (letters from Lambarene, p.506). Quote:

"After 14 days we are so far that the pharmacy and the examination room can be furnished with the basic. Now the roof of the large barracks for the sick is to put. But the leaf bricks are not enough, although I managed to get 200 more. And we are still in the rainy season." (Letters from Lambarene, p.506)

-- Albert Schweitzer's patients are in an earth barrack with a perforated roof, so it always rains in, so that some patients catch cold and die from it (letters from Lambarene, p.506). Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"Every night there are heavy thunderstorms. In the morning I find my sick people lying on the ground soaked. Several severe colds occur, two of which are fatal. I am very desperate." (Letters from Lambarene, p.506)

-- the leaf roofs have to be checked daily for shifting of the tiles, because every gust of wind can shift the leaf tiles again (letters from Lambarene, p.529). Albert Schweitzer quote:

"A patched canopy should actually be checked every day. The slightest gust of wind is enough to move the rotten leaf bricks against each other in such a way that a new hole is created." (Letters from Lambarene, p.529)

[The question here is why the roofs are not fastened with ropes or fishing nets. Corrugated iron is bought in 1926 only].

Concentration camp-like conditions 1924-1926: Terminally ill black people are dropped anonymously on the riverbank - and there are no blankets and mosquito nets
-- sometimes blankets and mosquito nets are not enough, then one patient is waiting for the death of the other (letters from Lambarene, p.518). Quote:

"Hardly have I been here for 14 days [beginning of May 1924] when I find an old heart patient in the morning, almost naked, without a blanket and without a mosquito net down [on the riverbank]. Nobody knows how he got here. He himself refers to a large and influential family up at Samkita, soon these people would come and bring him a lot of groceries and me a big present: I am giving him a blanket, a mosquito net and something to eat (letters from Lambarene, p.517).

He is with us for several weeks until death redeems him. When he can barely speak, he still talks about the rich relatives who will come. The last service of love that I render him is that I always faithfully agree with him in these speeches. The patient next to him, who was also put down in this way, is waiting for his death to get the mosquito net and the blanket. The mosquito nets and the blankets that I brought with me in my luggage are all already used up, and the arrival of the 370 boxes, which left Strasbourg as freight in February, is still pending." (Letters from Lambarene, p.518 )

Conditions similar to concentration camps in Lambarene 1913-1925: Children have to dig graves and carry dead bodies - Albert Schweitzer maintains a hospital cemetery - no cremation of the dead

[Albert Schweitzer maintains a hospital cemetery instead of burning corpses and scattering the ashes, or just constructing a house with ash urns. In the end he himself will be buried in the hospital cemetery. Refusing to cremate is a lot of work for people digging graves, and that creates problems with healthy relatives of black people who often leave the hospital then because they never want to have to do anything with deads. Therefore the mission children often have to do it, and these are concentration camp-like conditions]:

Albert Schweitzer's data:

Afro mentality of the 1920s: the dead are unclean - digging a grave for "strangers" is impossible - mission children have to dig graves and carry corpses
No black person wants to dig graves for strangers because of the "uncleanness" of "others". It is a vow among black people never to have anything to do with dead strangers [that means: people from one tribe are not allowed to dig a grave for the dead of another tribe, since the "other tribe" is considered "foreign"] (Letters, p .520). Often the children of the mission school classes have to dig the graves for the dead, sometimes it is also the helper Noël Gillespie (letters from Lambarene, p.521).

Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"A funeral is much work for us. Because it's not possible to distribute picks and spades simply to three or four men who are assists of my patients in the hospital promising them a gift and letting them shoveling the grave. When somebody has died, normally all men who could handle an tool have disappeared, allegedly they have left for fishing or for a trip for food. With a foreign dead a native does not want to have to do anything. Primitive religious ideas of "becoming unclean" are still at play here. If, for example, a child is expected in a family, no member of the same may have anything to do with a dead person. Sometimes the parents also vowed when a child was born that it would never come into contact with a dead person This vow must be kept. [...]

The Catholic mission faces the same difficulty. A Negro woman from Catholic circles died in my hospital. I inform the father (letters, p.520) and ask if he wants to bury her in the catholic cemetery. "Yes," he replies, "when people come to dig the grave in our cemetery. We had to give up asking our schoolboys to do this work for being an impertinence."

Normally the school boys of the missionary station take over the task to dig the grave and to carry the dead body. But when they are not here, we have to do it ourselves. Noël has sometimes worked as a gravedigger and as a carrier of the deads. And the black helper G'Mba was overthrowing all prejudice and is well helping, what I give him great credit for." (Letters from Lambarene, p.521)

Concentration camp-like conditions in Lambarene 1925: Chicken coop under the house in the tropics? - MURDER in Albert Schweitzer's hospital: chicken droppings under the house with sickroom, pantry and staff rooms
Albert Schweitzer is planning a new wooden house on stilts for white sick people, employees and storage space. The project is to let live the chickens under it (letters from Lambarene, p.569). Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

Quote:
"On the site of the mission station available to me, there is just a territory left that can accommodate a house 16 meters long and 12 meters wide. This will house the white sick people, the supplies, Joseph and the cook together. The chickens are given a home under them between the stakes." (Letters from Lambarene, p.569)

[Comment: It's funny that Albert Schweitzer allows chicken droppings to spread it's bacteria under the house of the white sick, with the supplies and under the assistant Joseph and the cook. This is MURDER].

Conditions similar to a concentration camp in Lambarene in 1925: the barracks have no windows - not possible to change bandages there
In the barracks it is too dark to bandage and all patients, even those who can hardly walk, have to come to the doctor to bandage or crawl (letters from Lambarene, p.578).

Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"In the morning, when the patients are called for changing their bandages, patients come slipping and crawling because the ulcers make it impossible for them to walk. We'd like to spare them the trip and bandage them at their sleeping places. But it's too dark in the barracks for that." (Letters from Lambarene, p.578)

The barracks where the patients live are often overcrowded. This is not a stimulus for patients to stay in hospital for a long time, so some patients flee before their treatment is finished. So Albert Schweitzer spoils some treatment himself (letters from Lambarene, p.578).

Quote from Albert Schweitzer about lepers who refuse long treatment (translation):

"The patients could recover more with some more injections with chaulmoogra oil, but they don't accept, because this affords a longer stay in the hospital. But we hope to be successful with the convinced ones. Ok, living in the overcrowded barracks is not a convenience, I have to accept this." (Letters from Lambarene, p.578)

[So, this is a voting with one's feet - like fleeing from communism].

Conditions similar to concentration camps in Lambarene - April 1925: Murder in the hospital by character assassination for allegedly planned mouth robbery: patient kills patient
-- one patient with dysentery kills another on the pretext that the other had tried to steal food from him
-- the murderer is allowed to live, because he will die by himself soon afterwards anyway (letters, from Lambarene, p.588).

Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"A dysentery patient who cannot stand on his feet kills his neighbor, who is just as poor a skeleton as he is. He said he wanted to take food away from him. Some people with dysentery have good appetite until the last day. We let the killer live who shows no remorse about his act, because it can be foreseen that he will follow his victim to death in a few days, and it happens like this." (Letters from Lambarene, p.588)

Concentration camp-like conditions in Lambarene - case: hurting somebody by cutting and then attempted poisoning
Because of rivalries, one of them cut the other and the injured is brought by his clan
-- a tendon is repaired with a tendon suture
-- the injured person cannot cook himself, an assist has to stay
-- the clan determines one as an assist (Letters, p.592)
-- in the course of the healing time the healing patient suddenly gets difficulties, he looks much older, he staggers when there is the bandage change, he is dazed (Letters, p.592), he can hardly talk anymore (Letters, p.592-593)
--> It turns out that the assistant is not an assistant, but is his rival, who should serve as a penance for the injured, but the rival now also wanted to poison the injured
--> so the arrangement is another one now: the vengeance has to stop: the "assistant" is employed elsewhere, doing the laundry and carrying water for the hospital (letters from Lambarene, p.593).

Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"During an argument with another - because of a woman - a man received a blow with a machete on the forearm. The clan brings him. A tendon suturing is necessary, which our surgeon carries out according to all the rules of the art. In the case of the injured, for himself unable to cook themselves, a companion always has to stay behind for the service. The clan unanimously names a man for this office who also takes it for granted. However, Mr. Lauterburg does not experience any real joy in his patient, despite the beautifully executed tendon sutures injury which seems to heal well. But the man is beginning to look dilapidated. He staggers when he comes to bandage, is dazed and loses the (Letters, p.592) language. N'Tschinda-N'Tschinda stands in front of an infection which is causing such a bad condition, without fever and with a normally helaing wound ... "Poisoning", I utter when he draws my attention to the case works. People working for a longer time here, is thinking of this possibility with all unclear cases. The sick person receives the food only from the hand of one of our assistants. Slowly, very slowly, the symptoms are reducing. After a while the case clears up. The companion left by his clan with the patient is the man who had the palaver with the patient and wounded him. As a penance he had to take over this office. In doing so, he is mentally weak abusing his service trying to eliminate him. Well, we observed no talking, but the family members of the patient become suspicious. For not killing the poison mixer provoking one more drama after the other, hs is ordered for work to Mrs. Kottmann for helping in the laundry and carrying water, where he makes no problem." (Letters from Lambarene, p.593 )

Albert Schweitzer IS PROMOTING concentration camp conditions in the hospital May 1925: House construction: Carpenter Schatzmann has finished the roofs of the 10-room house and Albert Schweitzer lets Mr. Schatzmann move to a new job at a large company (!)
Then the carpenter Schatzmann is lured away by a big company and Albert Schweitzer allows it (?? !!) (Letters from Lambarene, p.598). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"At the same time the double roof of the new house will be finished. Without Mr. Schatzmann's help, we would not be that far. If necessary, the black carpenter can finish the floor, the wooden walls and the doors on his own ... if wood is available .

The largest trading company in the Ogowe area hires Mr. Schatzmann to manage all of its buildings. I encourage him to do this and then he decides to accept the beautiful and interesting position. But he would much rather build a whole hospital for me." (Letters from Lambarene, p.598)

[Albert Schweitzer is an idiot to give away the best carpenter, because then new concentration camp conditions in the hospital will follow].

Late May 1925
Death of a white timber merchant employee
-- he is brought when he is in a coma already (letters from Lambarene, p.598).

Conditions similar to a concentration camp in Lambarene June 1925
Death of an elephantiasis patient waiting for the operation - he dies of pneumonia
A patient with elephantiasis is dying of pneumonia while he is waiting for the operation (letters from Lambarene, p.598).

[Dr. Albert Schweitzer travels to Cap Lopez to take a week's vacation and leaves the helpless patient, who cannot even walk, to wait for the operation].

Albert Schweitzer simply says, pneumonia always comes at the beginning of the dry season in June [due to the changeover] (letters from Lambarene, p.598). Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"Cape Lopez [...] to relax by the sea for a while. I haven't relaxed a day for a year. But the relaxation won't be much. N'Tschinda-N'Tschinda has provoked such a good reputation for us in Cape Lopez so I am asked for healing here and there everywhere. Especially much work is with the ship crews in the port where dysentery has started. They got dirty water in another port further south. In the meantime we loose a man who was waiting for his operation of his elephantiasis tumor. He is dying by a pneumonia. The beginning of the dry season is the time of pneumonias." (Letters from Lambarene, p.598)

Lambarene concentration camp - June 1925: More and more dysentery - Albert Schweitzer cannot get the dysentery under control

Albert Schweitzer's hospital is getting full with dysentery patients (letters from Lambarene, p.599). The most cruel conditions prevail:

From June 1925 onwards, there was a dysentery epidemic in Gabon on the Ogowe River. The starting point is the port of Cap Lopez, where apparently ship crews were drinking contaminated brackish water. Albert Schweitzer's hospital is overcrowded with dysentery patients and he cannot get the dysentery under control. Instead of quickly building a new healing station 1km away, Albert Schweitzer's hospital becomes a dysentery concentration camp. The "wild blacks" (Bendjabis) still don't accept any education or instruction, they are going on taking the water from the river instead of the 100m distant clean water source and they infect lots of patients (letters, p.599-601) or at the end they are even hiding their dysentery ending up with dysentery on the operating table (letters from Lambarene, p.608).

There are two types of dysentery:

1) Amoebic dysentery
-- the amoebic dysentery occurs only in the tropics, with amoeba in the large intestine, which provoke bloody ulcers (letters from Lambarene, p.599)
-- the amoebas eat on the wall of the large intestine and provoke bloody stools (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.400)
-- in earlier times, dysentery was treated with the powder of the root "Ipecacuanha", but the intake was not effective and caused vomiting (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.400)
-- for some years now the drug Emetine from the root Emetinum chlorhydricum has been injected under the skin and the healing comes soon (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.400)
-- the remedy for the treatment of dysentery is Emetine from the Ipecacuanha bark (letters from Lambarene, p.599)
-- The agent is dissolved in water and injected under the skin for several days, then there is a break of several days, then another round of injections, 8-10 centigrams per syringe
-- all in all 2 grams of Emetine are used per dysentery patient for a healing treatment of dysentery (letters from Lambarene, p.599-600)
-- No special diet is necessary (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.400). Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"In the past, the treatment of dysentery, which is very common here, was very tedious and basically unsuccessful. The only remedy, the powdered ipecacuanha root, could not be administered in sufficiently effective doses because, taken by mouth, it causes vomiting. Since some years Emetine (Emetinum chlorhydricum) is applied which comes from this root. Injections with a 1% solution of it during several days - 6 to 8 cm3 per day - under the skin provoke soon a betterment and normally a definite healing. The successes border on the wonderful." (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.400)

2) The bacilli dysentery
-- occurs all over the world, according to Albert Schweitzer there is NO means available (letters from Lambarene, p.599).

Amoebic dysentery and bacillary dysentery can also occur at the same time in the same place. Since the "wild blacks" (Bendjabis) moved from the interior of Gabon to the Ogowe River since 1919 to take part in the timber trade, both species - the amoebic dysentery and the bacilli dysentery - have appeared at the same time on the Ogowe River (letters from Lambarene, p.600).

-- the dysentery sufferers are a huge mess in the hospital, can no longer move, they are soiling everything with endless diarrhea, sometimes they have to be fed because they don't even have the strength to hold a spoon
-- the family members do NOT help or only rarely
-- dysentery sufferers have to be isolated, it's absolute alarm level (letters from Lambarene, p.600)
-- but there are no isolating barracks there (letters, p.600-601), only dividing walls ware possible
-- when the dysentery patients are outside, they pollute everything with their diarrhea
-- at the same time, the black Bendjabis remain lazy, they prefer to fetch the drinking water from the river only 20 paces away, although this is forbidden, and the clean water spring, which is 100 paces away, is too far away for the criminal Bendjabis
-- the relatives eat with their hands [as is customary in Africa] TOGETHER with the dysentery sufferers
-- healthy people who cook and eat with dysentery sufferers then also get dysentery (letters from Lambarene, p.601).


Lambarene concentration camp - June 1925: hookworm disease (ankylostomiasis)
The hookworm disease (ankylostomiasis) can be determined with a microscope, about 1cm long worms in the small intestine (letters from Lambarene, p.601)
-- These hookworms were discovered during the construction of the Gotthard tunnel in Switzerland; they can be found in warm, moist soil, i.e. in tunnels or in the tropics
-- The larvae come from the earth penetrating the skin into the lungs and then settle in the small intestine, the worms eat the intestinal mucosa, which then is bleeding continuously
-- intestinal disorders occur - anemia comes - [lack of oxygen] - general physical weakness comes (letters, p. 602) up to heart failure (letters, p. 603)
-- the worm eggs of the hookworms can be seen with a microscope in the chair (letters from Lambarene, p.602).

The cure of hookworm disease according to Albert Schweitzer:
-- take thymol or carbon tetrachloride several times
-- the worms are driven away
-- the patient becomes healthy and has the normal level of oxygen in the blood and the patient becomes strong again (letters from Lambarene, p.602)
-- during the healing process no alcohol or fat should be consumed, otherwise the thymol will be dissolved and have a toxic effect
-- so every hookworm patient is isolated and observed for 2 to 3 days, including white people! (Letters from Lambarene, p. 603).

Healing with carbon tetrachloride: You have to know that it contains traces of carbon disulfide (letters from Lambarene, p.603).


Lambarene concentration camp - June 1925: Famine upstream because there were no slash and burns in 1924 (??!!)

Gabon with a criminal tradition in the jungle: The natives only want to plant where there was a slash and burn - depending on the dry season (!)

The dysentery depresses the mood in the hospital and the simultaneous news of the famine upstream even more (letters from Lambarene, p.603).

-- The areas on the border with Cameroon with the caravan route N'Djôle-Boue-Makokou are particularly affected
-- the blacks have a tradition of planting after slash and burn, the soil is fertilized with the ashes of the fire and then the vegetables are freshly planted on the ashes as fertilizer [as if there would not be any other fertilizer]
-- In 1924 there was no drought, it also rained heavily in July and August 1924, nothing could be burned, so nothing was planted in 1924 - so of course that is a mindless reaction not planting anything (!!!)
-- so it was in Gabon in the border region to Cameroon and also in Lambarene (letters from Lambarene, p.603).

Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"Our mood, which was very depressed by the increasing dysentery, is even more depressed by news of severe famine upstream. The areas bordering Cameroon which are crossed by the N'Djôle-Boue-Makokou caravan route are particularly affected. The ultimate cause of this severe famine is the rain that came down in the dry season of 1924. This rain blocked any action of slash and burns. However, the custom requires that you only plant where the forest has been burned. This removes wood and scrub and the ground is fertilized by ashes. If rain makes this process impossible, the natives simply do not plant any plants, regardless of the consequences. That is how it was kept up there, including in our region. In our area, when the rains continued, they did not even cut the forest." (Letters from Lambarene, p. 603)

Planting would also be possible in the rain. In Lambarene, rice arrives by ship from Europe and India. In the interior of Gabon, however, it is hardly possible to supply rice from outside by land with footpaths and porters. So in June 1925 the situation is like this:
-- Lambarene is suffering from a slight famine
-- the interior of Gabon is suffering from a severe famine (letters from Lambarene, p.604).

Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"The rains do not make the planting impossible, it just makes it more difficult. Instead of burning wood and bushes, all you have to do is gather it up in piles and then plant in the free spaces between the trunks and the piles. Because there was no decision to do so, no plants are yielding now. This fact is not so noticeable here, because on the navigable part of the Ogowe River the supply of rice from Europe and India is possible. Inside, however, where the rice has to be transported over 100s of kilometers by carriers, rice can only be a little part of the alimentation. Therefore there is a heavy famine, but in our region just a slight one." (Letters from Lambarene, p. 604)

Gabon - June 1925: Possible corn cultivation was not done - the corn was eaten - looting - nobody is planting anymore
If in the beginning of the famine corn had been planted so there would not be any famine. Coron in tropical Gabon is growing very fast, is yielding in the fourth month already, but the black natives have eaten the corn which was for sowing (!!!). And the starving in the inner of the country even began to plunder where plantings existed yet, and therefore they provoked famine also where no famine existed yet. The consequence is that there is no agricultural planting at all any more by the fear from plunderers. All are awaiting a wonder." (Letters from Lambarene, p. 604).

Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"When at the beginning of the famine corn had been planted at the right time so the worst had been possible to hinder. Coron is growing very well here and after four months is yielding already. But when food was scare, the natives were eating the corn which should have been sown. The misery was complete when dwellers from the most affected regions were raiding the regions where food existed yet plundering the plantings there. So also the other regions fell into the misery. No nobody has got the courage for planting. It would be for the robbers. The people is sitting sit in the villages without will awaiting their fate." (Letters from Lambarene, p. 604)

Gabon - June 1925: The people do not want to go hunting, not even the hunters - because there is "famine" - they are without movement as if in hypnosis
The peoples of Equatorial Africa are not gifted to cope with difficult situations. There remains hunting in the jungle or in the steppe (Letters, p.604), e.g. 20 people against wild boars, which are not as dangerous in Africa as in Europe (Letters, p. 604-605). But:
-- the blacks do not organize anything because there is famine
-- the blacks don't know the slogan "emergency makes inventive", but rather the slogan "emergency makes stupid" (letters from Lambarene, p. 605).

Of course there are trained hunters in Gabon, but they are hypnotized and simply do not hunt, because there is "famine". (Letters from Lambarene, p. 605).

Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"This lack of resilience and this [mental] inability to adapt to difficult circumstances are typical of the natives of Equatorial Africa and make them pitiful creatures. Well, there is food with vegetables or fruits. But in the forest and in the steppes meat food could be provided. Twenty men with bush knives and lances could surround a herd of wild boars and have one of them as a pray (Letters, p.604). The wild boars in Africa are much less dangerous than the European species. But the hungry black natives are not organizing anything, but they rather like to sit in their huts awaiting death because it's famine. Here, the rule is not "emergency makes inventive", but "emergency makes stupid".

A man from the famine area - as I am told - knows a black hunter who normally is killing much with his rifle. But now famine broke out and instead of hunting much with all possible zeal he is sitting in the hut with the others for dying of hunger not saving them with the ammunition which could made available by his boss. Bananas and cassava are part of the diet. So you can't live without it. Hypnotized by logic, hundreds and hundreds are now surrendering to death up there. "(Letters from Lambarene, p. 605)

Lambarene Concentration Camp - June 1925: New leaf tiles because of holes in the roof by Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer was able to get 3000 leaf tiles for the roof renovation, Dr. Nessmann was very convincing to urge the black patients to pay for the healings with the tiles (Letters from Lambarene, p.605). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"At the end of July I will be replacing the roof of my dwelling house, which allows sun and rain to pass through countless large and small holes. We have brought together the 3,000 leaf bricks required for this over the last few months. The credit goes to Mr Nessmann, who has the talent to convince the patients to pay with leaf tiles, better than me." (Letters from Lambarene, p. 605)

[Holes in the roof - holes in the brain
Well, there is psychological connection saying that persons with holes in the roof have also holes in the brain. And as Albert Schweitzer is clearly permitting conditions similar to concentration camps, there is something with him].

Lambarene concentration camp - early September 1925
The dysentery among the "wild blacks" (Bendjabis) is still increasing - total failure with Albert Schweitzer
-- the hospital is more and more contaminated (letters from Lambarene, p.607)
-- several normal patients become infected with dysentery, even after the operation
-- the criminal "wild blacks" (Bendjabis) disobey and do not follow any instruction, e.g. are always consuming river water instead of spring water, even if the water spring is only 100 paces away
-- the dysentery patients are now hiding their dysentery more and more in order to avoid observation
-- other dysentery patients cover those who hide their dysentery, especially if someone needs an operation, because people with dysentery are not operated in the hospital of Albert Schweitzer
-- with these maneuvers, dysentery patients end up with Albert Schweitzer in the operating room, where it is only noticed on the operating table that the patient has dysentery
-- the hospital staff is exhausted
-- and the criminal wild blacks (Bendjabis) only take revenge even more with their criminality (Letters, p.608), they still consume unclean river water (Letters, p.608-609)
-- Albert Schweitzer only now realizes that he is a "fool" to deal with criminals:

"What a fool I am that I have become the doctor of such savages." (Letters from Lambarene, p. 609)

[But he does not admit his main mistake of not organizing a separate station away from dysentery patients and thus protecting the other patients. One could also rent a ship and isolate the dysentery patients on a ship etc. - he doesn't do anything, not even a call for help, nothing].

Lambarene concentration camp - early September 1925
Helpers leave because of the dysentery epidemic
-- Helper Minköe is annoyed by the dysentery patients and family members have manipulated him, he shouldn't "wither" with his talents in the hospital (letters from Lambarene, p.609)
-- Minköe wants to go to the mission school and he wants to switch on a rest period first
-- Albert Schweitzer now has to do all himself, collect wood, saw and carve wood (Letters from Lambarene, p.609)


The famine is now also becoming serious on the Ogowe River

-- the population concentrated only on the timber trade and no longer planted bananas or manioc
-- merchants underestimated the famine and did not buy enough rice
-- a ship with rice leaks and the rice becomes waste
-- other ships lose a lot of time when unloading at the ports due to bad weather
-- and now the inflation is starting going (letters from Lambarene, p.611).

[Albert Schweitzer wants to remain a doctor and not become a farmer - but apparently he does not call for help either, so that European farmers would come!]

-- small timber merchants only find out about the famine before the shortage, when the inflation starts (letters from Lambarene, p.612).

Healed people no longer want to leave the hospital
The new situation arises that healed patients prefer to stay in hospital rather than go home because they don't want to go into famine. Albert Schweitzer cannot get rid of them and there are only a few canoes still driving to bring people back to their villages (letters from Lambarene, p.613).

Famine and nothing works in Gabon
-- the lumber yards are left alone
-- wild blacks (Bendjabis) become hunters and gatherers with berries, mushrooms, roots, wild honey, palm nuts and wild pineapples
-- sometimes abandoned fields can be found yet for digging of manioc in the ground (letters from Lambarene, p.613).
-- the little steamers that have always delivered rice to the timber merchants are no longer coming because of irregular freight - so rice only comes by canoe, which can easily capsize (letters, p.613), so a lot of rice is lost because of bad weather and recklessness of the black rowers (letters, p.613-614)
-- at the end of November the mango trees will carry their mangoes where lost villages had been before (letters, p.613)
-- corn sown in September is yielding in December, bananas planted in September need until February (letters from Lambarene, p.613).

[The famine in Gabon in 1925 seems a MANEUVER
-- Why Gabon government is not searching for a better agriculture than burning forest before planting?
-- Why has the Gabon government not guaranteed safe ship transport for rice?
-- Why Gabon government permits wale hunting in the sea for Norwegian wale hunters and is not distributing wale meat to the population?
The whole famine seems to be a maneuver controlled from above].

Lambarene Concentration Camp - Summer 1925
Albert Schweitzer's hospital (dysentery concentration camp) is becoming more and more overcrowded - new poisonings: mushrooms + wild honey
-- there are more and more dysentery patients
-- now there are also starving people, emaciated to the point of skeleton
-- now there is also mushroom poisoning from eating poisonous mushrooms
-- and there is a new poisoning coming up with wild honey of a certain type of bees, because the wild blacks (Bendjabis) eat so much of it and sometimes die from it too
-- this particular species of bees nests in trunks where a particular species of ants lives, and as a result, the wild honey is mixed with formic acid, which provokes severe kidney infections
-- the wild Bendjabis eat the wild honey of this type of bee in large quantities and also eat all the "dirt attached from the ant nest" (letters from Lambarene, p.614)

Of the many Bendjabis who come to the hospital because of honey poisoning, only two survive - just those who have been discriminated during the distribution of honey and have received only little of it. Their kidney inflammation is healing (letters from Lambarene, p.614).

Albert Schweitzer tells to avoid dark, wild honey, but the Bendjabis do not listen to him, as so often (letters from Lambarene, p.614).


November + December 1925
Concentration camp conditions in Albert Schweitzer's hospital: Further dysentery in the hospital
-- often six people come at once, many of them emaciated and terminally ill. There are so many dead bodies lying around that the doctors themselves have to function as grave diggers, they are digging graves and have to carry dead bodies (letters from Lambarene, p.635).
-- and patients are constantly infected with dysentery
-- case: The patient Menzoghe, who had her arm amputated, is infected with dysentery and dies from it (letters from Lambarene, p.635)
-- case: Albert Schweitzer finds a starving man, takes him to the hospital, there is infected with dysentery and dies despite being cared for (letters from Lambarene, p.635-636)
-- Albert Schweitzer cannot send people away either because they don't accept to be turned away (letters from Lambarene, p.636)

[The question arises why Albert Schweitzer does not install a station for dysentery patients e.g. on a steamer].

Lambarene 1926: Research by Dr. Trensz: dysentery symptoms often turn out to be cholera - concentration camp conditions stop

Dr. Trensz has set up a small bacteriological laboratory. Through microscopic examinations and systematic experiments with fecal samples from dysentery patients, Dr. Trensz found out that the patients' dysentery is often not dysentery at all, but that they have vibrions that are related to the cholera vibrio. Dr. Trensz states that it is often not about dysentery but about cholerine (letters from Lambarene, p.662). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"Unfortunately there are many dysentery patients to cure yet, but now Dr. Trensz makes a valuable observation. As is well known, there are two types of dysentery: that caused by amoebas - that is, unicellular organisms - and that caused by an infection with dysentery bacteria. He has a little bacteriologic laboratory installed, with most primitive means. Now Dr. Trensz is undertaking to cultivate the patient's feces in which no amoebas were found. Instead of the expected dysentery bacilli, however, he discovers vibrions that are very closely related to cholera vibrio and only are different by a different kind of agglutination. So what was seen as bacillus dysentery is, according to this statement (Letters, p.662), in most cases a severe cholerine caused by a paracholera vibrio." (Letters from Lambarene, p.663)

Treatment of all unexplained dysentery cases as cholera cases: with white clay water (white clay being dissolved in water)
Since this discovery, Albert Schweitzer has cured dysentery like cholera: with white clay being dissolved in water. And since it is cholera and not dysentery, the people are now healing [finally!] (Letters from Lambarene, p.663). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):

"Before already I had healed the unexplained cases of dysentery with white clay being dissolved in water copying the cholera therapy and there were good successes. Now all was explained by the statement of Dr. Trensz why this treatment was successful. The cases were just a kind of cholera cases." (Letters from Lambarene, p.663)

The injection against cholerins by Dr. Trensz - the cure for cholerins in 2 to 3 days
Dr. Trensz is growing the vibrions on cultures and is producing an injection treatment ("vaccine") so that the cholerine is cured in 2 to 3 days (letters from Lambarene, p.663). Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):

"Cultivating the vibrios in the laboratory allows Dr. Trensz to produce a vaccine that can cure such cases of cholerins in 2 to 3 days." (Letters from Lambarene, p.663)

[More details are not known].

Diet with only white rice is the cause of susceptibility to the cholerine bacterium
The pathogen "Choleravibrio" is found in the river system of the Ogowe River, which is "native" there. With good nutrition, however, the cholerine bacterium is harmless. The eternal rice food at the Ogowe river is damaging the intestinal flora, so that the resistance in the intestines of the black people is decreasing and the river water with the cholerine bacteria becomes dangerous (letters from Lambarene, p.663).

The research of Dr. Trensz about the cholera disease with the cholerine bacterium is in progress and a scientific treatise is in progress (letters from Lambarene, p.663).

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