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 Perspectives on Southern Africa

1. T H E A U T O B I O G R A P H Y OF AN U N K N O W N S O U T H A F R I C A N , by Naboth Mokgatle
(1971)
2. MODERNIZING RACIAL DOMINATION: South Africa's Political Dynamics, by
Heribert Adam (1971)
3. T H E R I S E OF A F R I C A N N A T I O N A L I S M IN S O U T H A F R I C A : The African National
Congress, 1912-1952, by Peter Walshe (1971)
4. T A L E S FROM S O U T H E R N A F R I C A , b y A . C . J o r d a n (1973)
5. L E S O T H O 1970: An African Coup Under the Microscope, by B . M . Khaketla (1972)
6. T O W A R D S AN A F R I C A N L I T E R A T U R E : The Emergence of Literary Form in Xhosa, by
A. C . J o r d a n (1972)
7. L A W , O R D E R , AND L I B E R T Y IN S O U T H A F R I C A , b y A . S . M a t h e w s (1972)
8. SWAZILAND: The Dynamics of Political Modernization, by Christian P. Potholm
(1972)
9. T H E SOUTH WEST AFRICA/NAMBIA DISPUTE: Documents and Scholarly Writings on
the Controversy Between South Africa and the United Nations, by John Dugard
(1973)
10. C O N F R O N T A T I O N AND A C C O M M O D A T I O N IN S O U T H E R N A F R I C A : The Limits of
Independence, by Kenneth W. Grundy (1973)
11. T H E R I S E OF A F R I K A N E R D O M : Power, Apartheid, and the Afrikaner Civil Religion,
by T . Dunbar Moodie (1975)
12. J U S T I C E IN S O U T H A F R I C A , by Albie Sachs ( 1 9 7 3 )
13. AFRIKANER POLITICS IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1 9 3 4 - 1 9 4 8 , b y N e w e l l M . S t u l t z ( 1 9 7 4 )
14. C R O W N AND C H A R T E R : The Early Years of the British South Africa Company, by
John S. Galbraith (1975)
15. POLITICS OF ZAMBIA, edited by William T o r d o f f (1975)
16. C O R P O R A T E P O W E R IN AN A F R I C A N S T A T E : The Political Impact of Multinational
Mining Companies in Zambia, by Richard Sklar (1975)
17. C H A N G E IN C O N T E M P O R A R Y S O U T H A F R I C A , edited by Leonard Thompson and
Jeffrey Butler (1975)
1 8 . T H E T R A D I T I O N OF R E S I S T A N C E IN M O Z A M B I Q U E : Anti-Colonial Activity in the
Zambesi Valley, 1850-1921, by Allen F. Isaacman (1976)
19. B L A C K P O W E R IN S O U T H A F R I C A : The Evolution of an Ideology, by Gail M .
Gerhart (1978)
20. B L A C K H E A R T : Gore-Browne and the Politics of Multiracial Zambia, by Robert I.
Rotberg (1977)
2 1 . T H E B L A C K H O M E L A N D S OF S O U T H A F R I C A : The Political and Economic Develop-
ment of Bophuthatswana and KwaZulu, by Jeffrey Butler, Robert I. Rotberg, and
John Adams ( 1 9 7 7 ) .
22. A F R I K A N E R P O L I T I C A L T H O U G H T , by Hermann Giliomee and André du Toit
(1978).
23. A N G O L A UNDER T H E P O R T U G E S E : The Myth and the Reality, by Gerald Bender
(1977).
24. L A N D AND R A C I A L D O M I N A T I O N IN R H O D E S I A , by Robin Palmer ( 1 9 7 7 ) .
2 5 . T H E R O O T S OF R U R A L P O V E R T Y : Historical Essays on the Development of Underde-
velopment in Central and Southern Africa, edited by Robin Palmer and Neil
Parsons (1977).
Black Heart
Gore-Browne in 1964.
"You've a black heart under a white skin!"
E. M L Mtcpuka to Gore-Browne
1 M i y 1946
Black Heart
Gore-Browne and the Politics
of Multiracial Zambia

ROBERT I. ROTBERG

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

BERKELEY LOS ANGELES LONDON
O t h e r b o o k s written and edited by the s a m e A u t h o r :

Black Homelands (Berkeley, 1977); The African Diaspora ( C a m b r i d g e ,

1976); Rebellion in Black Africa ( N e w York, \97i)Joseph Thomson and the
Exploration of Africa ( L o n d o n , 1971); Haiti: The Politics of Squalor ( B o s t o n ,
1971); Christian Missionaries and the Creation of Northern Rhodesia (Prince-
ton, 1965); A Political History of Tropical Africa ( N e w York, 1965); The Rise
of Nationalism in Central Africa ( C a m b r i d g e , 1965).

University of California Press

Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

University of California Press, Ltd.

London, England

Copyright © 1977 by
Robert I. Rotberg

ISBN 0-520-03164-4

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 75-40666

Printed in the United States of America

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
 for
JOANNA
whose book this is
 Contents

Foreword by Kenneth D. Kaunda xiii

Preface XV

I "The Spring of Life" 1

II To the Lake of the Royal Crocodiles 29
III The Shells of War 60
IV The Creating of Shiwa Ngandu 94
V "Lorna, dear and bright" 131
VI Politics in a Changing Society 170
VII Realizing the Dreams of Boyhood 210
Vili The Last Hurrah 254
IX The Triumph of the Majority 290
X The Contribution of a Multiracial
Initiative 330

Bibliography 337
Articles by Gore-Browne, 337
Books and Articles about Gore-Browne and His Times, 338

Interviews 341
Index 343

ix
 Illustrations and Maps

ILLUSTRATIONS

Gore-Browne in 1964, from Horizon (July, 1964),

with permission of RCM, Ltd. of Zambia. Frontispiece
Gore-Browne as a young soldier, c. 1902. 31
Gore-Browne (third from left) feeding the pigeons in
Paris, 1918. 86
Gore-Browne beside a life-size portrait of Dame Ethel
Locke-King, from Horizon (July, 1964), with permis-
sion of R C M Ltd. of Zambia. 120
An aerial view of the manor house at Shiwa Ngandu,
from Horizon (July, 1964), with permission of R C M ,
Ltd. of Zambia. 140
The manor house from the front, 1962. Photograph
by the author. 142
Gore-Browne and Henry Mulenga, 1964. 264
Gore-Browne at Harvard University, 1962. Photo-
graph by the author. 319
Gore-Browne listening to Kenneth Kaunda, candidate
for president of Zambia, at Shiwa Ngandu, 1962.
Photograph by the author. 322
Gore-Browne at Chisamba, 1967. Photograph by the
author. 328

MAPS

Colonial Zambia: Major places and physical features.

Drawn by Joanna H. Rotberg. 3
The Shiwa Estate, 1920-1940. Drawn by Joanna H.
Rotberg. 101
xi
 Foreword
K E N N E T H D. K A U N D A

I readily agreed to write a foreword to this book not

because I have absolute knowledge and experience of Sir Stewart
Gore-Browne from his childhood to his death at Shiwa Ngandu,
but because from the time I knew him in his private life at Shiwa
Ngandu and the time we closely worked together in the struggle for
the freedom of Zambia, he left in me an indelible impression of his
greatness and wholeness. He proved to be a firm believer in the
dignity and worth of man. He was a humanist crusader.
As Professor Rotberg points out in this book, Gore-Browne was
a man of many roles while he lived. He was a man of fortitude,
moral courage, vision, and adventure. These qualities I discovered
in him during the time I knew and worked with him and they
explain candidly the many roles he played in life. They unfolded
with each role that he played and accomplished.
Gore-Browne was one of the rare white people at the height of
Zambia's battle for national independence who stood on the black
man's side to struggle shoulder to shoulder for freedom and justice.
He fought with the black majority, not because they were black, but
because they were right and their cause was just. They deserved to
win. He heroically challenged the colonialist and racist structures of
power and worked relentlessly for their total destruction even at the
risk of his own life.
Gore-Browne, aipart from the leading part he played in both the
politics of Northern Rhodesia and the new nation of Zambia,
whose birth he helped to hasten, also sought to tread the unbeaten
path of social integration and interaction with the "native." He
chose Shiwa Ngandu, in the land of the Bemba people of northern
Zambia, as a place to live and work for the realization of his goals.
People flocked from all corners of the province to dine and interact
with the Gore-Bro wnes. They felt at home in the company of the
Gore-Brownes and the Gore-Brownes in turn enjoyed the social
and cultural life of the people. A new civilization was born out of
xiii
XIV FOREWORD

this fusion and integration developed and was bequeathed to the

generations yet to come.
Gore-Browne is thus a legend in Zambia—a country which he
helped to construct, a country he loved, a country in which his spirit
will long live. Zambia's history will, I believe, not be complete
without the mention of Gore-Browne's contribution to its making.
The readers of this biography will understand why I have a deep
admiration for Gore-Browne's rare qualities of leadership, moral-
ity, and dedication to the service of his fellow men. One can only
discover what type of man Sir Stewart Gore-Browne was and
where his greatness and wholeness lie by reading this book. I com-
mend it to students of history and to all humanistic crusaders who
still feel a sense of mission in this world.

K.D.K.
12 August 1977
 Preface

There were two Gore-Brownes. The official Gore-

Browne was Central Africa's premier statesman during the difficult
years of World War II and that hectic half-decade which preceded
the establishment of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
Gore-Browne led the white Legislative Council of Northern
Rhodesia before Roy Welensky. He represented African interests as
well, and in a manner unparalleled in any British African colony.
He was responsible for significant pro-African legislation and for
informal action which improved the lot of Africans as subjects of a
distant Crown and laborers for local white settlers and industri-
alists. Likewise, Gore-Browne's representation of Northern
Rhodesia at conferences or colonial meetings in London, Cape-
town, Salisbury, and Nairobi advanced the interests of Africans in
the imperial sphere.
The second Gore-Browne was an ex-artillery officer of aristo-
cratic connections and mien. He farmed a twenty-two thousand-
acre estate in a remote section of what is now northern Zambia.
There, to his impressive Italianate mansion, he welcomed titled
travelers, influential politicians, and, long before other whites felt
comfortable doing so, Africans of different backgrounds.
In Northern Rhodesia Gore-Browne was a rural squire as well as
a cultural and political leader. But few of his Rhodesian acquain-
tances knêw of his brilliant record in World War I, his first introduc-
tion to Africa before that war, or his growth in an eccentric and
imaginative family which included former governors-general,
bishops, generals, admirals, inventors, and jurists. Few compre-
hended the depth of his attachment to an inspiring aunt, the genesis
of his marriage to the daughter of his first love, or much else of the
man behind the monocled façade.
A settler who began life in Africa as an army officer, Gore-
Browne became a white politician with rare pro-African ideals and
ideas. Finally, he opposed white political control of Northern
Rhodesia and wholeheartedly supported the triumph of African
xv
XVI PREFACE

nationalism. This book combines a study of the official and the

private man. It explains the drives behind his many roles and ana-
lyzes the motivations which prompted someone of his background
to work so devotedly and decisively for better race relations, equity,
justice, and—finally—the independence of an African-run Zambia.
Only rarely in tropical Africa have whites, in life or after death,
managed to earn a revered place in the memories of their successors.
Almost alone of Central African immigrants, Gore-Browne ac-
complished both, being esteemed as a parliamentarian and a patron,
as a defender of indigenous rights, and as a campaigner for African
political growth.
On three well-separated occasions, Gore-Browne encouraged
my wife and me to examine the numerous trunks and boxes of
letters then stored in two dark back rooms in the Shiwa Ngandu
mansion house. Much of the contents he gave to us, although we
copied and returned his diaries and some directly political papers.
The corpus of the entire trove, exclusive of the yearly diaries,
amounts to about twenty thousand folios spanning the years of
Gore-Browne's youth and adolescence, his army career, and forty-
seven years in Zambia. The major portion of the whole consists of
long weekly or twice-weekly (during World War I, daily) letters
exchanged between Gore-Browne and Dame Ethel Locke-King,
his aunt. These are no ordinary letters. More epistles, they are reflec-
tive, extended, and well-crafted in a style that has sadly gone out of
favor. A great many of the total deserve publication as chronicles of
pioneering times past or political moments preserved. As a body
they express a relationship between individuals and a feeling for
events and people which this biography can but strive to recapture.
Gore-Browne's life was so enmeshed in the fabric of Northern
Rhodesia and Zambia that official correspondence and records now
in the archives of the Republic of Zambia, Rhodesia, and Kenya,
and in the British Public Record Office, have valuably supple-
mented the exchanges between aunt and nephew, Gore-Browne
and Lady Gore-Browne, Gore-Browne and innumerable local and
imperial officials and citizens, the records of the Shiwa Ngandu
estate, Gore-Browne's diaries and jotting books, and the memories
of persons and relatives who knew or worked with Gore-Browne
during the phases of his several careers.
My wife and I saw Gore-Browne a number of times in Africa and
the United States during the last eight years of his life, and corre-
sponded with him throughout a critical period in all our lives when
Northern Rhodesia was being transformed agonizingly into Zam-
bia. This prolonged contact nurtured my respect and admiration for
a towering contributor to a modern Africa. Gore-Browne wanted
me to write about him, but because of our mutual insistence upon
 PREFACE XVII

objectivity and candor—on "the warts and all"—this is n o hagiog-

raphy. It is the life of a man w h o rose to the challenge of his sur-
roundings and his era, and realized all of his gifts for the benefit of an
adopted people. Many great men live too early or too late to
capitalize upon their inherent abilities. G o r e - B r o w n e was in tune
with his times. Had there been more like him w h o were responsive
to its rapid rhythms, the shift f r o m colonial to indigenous rule
might have been more routine than traumatic.
M a n y of Gore-Browne's relatives, friends, colleagues, and ac-
quaintances provided me with helpful reminiscences, ideas, and
suggestions. I am particularly grateful for the opportunity to inter-
view Ronald Bush, Andrew Cohen, Lt. Col. H. P. McC. Glover,
Robert and Margaret Gore-Browne, Sapphire G o r e - B r o w n e H a n -
ford, J o h n Harvey, Rowland Hudson, President Kenneth Kaunda,
Cyril Pearson, Audrey I. Richards, and, on several occasions, Lady
Gore-Browne. A number, especially Professor J. O . Bailey, Maj.
Victor Delaforce, Nadine Gordimer, Elspeth Huxley, A r t h u r
Creech Jones, the Hon. Justice Sir Austin Jones, Brig. Gen. E. H.
Kelly, the D o w a g e r Countess of Lovelace, Violet Vincent M o n r o ,
Maj. Gen. R. H. Studdert, and Sir Roy Welensky kindly corre-
sponded with me at length about Gore-Browne. Patricia N o r t o n
generously lent me a n u m b e r of Gore-Browne's letters.
I gratefully acknowledge permission to quote T h o m a s H a r d y ' s
"Lorna the Second" f r o m his Collected Poems (Copyright 1928 by
Florence Hardy and Sydney E. Cockerell, renewed in 1956 by
Lloyds Bank Ltd.). The trustees of the Hardy Estate and Macmillan
London and Basingstoke gave permission for the British C o m -
monwealth, and Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc., of N e w York
gave permission for the United States.
Lady G o r e - B r o w n e read and commented upon an earlier, longer
version of this book. Her criticisms, and those of Audrey I. Richards
and Peter Stansky, were of major importance. I am particularly
grateful, too, for the research assistance of Nancy Seasholes, w h o '
came to k n o w the G o r e - B r o w n e story, and his letters, in intimate
detail. Jane Tatlock valiantly transcribed the laconically-taped ver-
sions of the G o r e - B r o w n e diaries; Evalyn Seidman typed many of
the chapters, and Donna Louise Rogers assisted mightily in the final
transformation of a typescript into a book. A timely grant f r o m the
American Philosophical Society permitted some of the G o r e -
B r o w n e materials to be recorded permanently. Without the advice
of Raya Dreben, much of this effort would have been wasted. Jef-
frey Butler supplied some important ideas. Denis and O e n o n e
Acheson and Trevor and Carol C o o m b e were there w h e n problems
arose and provided the kind of sorely-needed support which is so
often lacking. All, in their individual ways, contributed sig-
xviii PREFACE

nificantly to this biography. The debt of gratitude is large, and the

list of particulars long.
N o one, however, was more involved with the biography in all of
its stages than Joanna H. Rotberg. From Cambridge and Chocorua
to Shiwa Ngandu, Chisamba, Lusaka, Archway, and Beaulieu the
quest for the real Gore-Browne has been shared. This especially is
her book.
R. I. R.
4 February 1976
 I
"The Spring of Life"

STEWART GORE-BROWNE was born in the spring of 1883,

an ordinary Victorian year. The sun of Britain was at its imperial
zenith. Her soldiers had won victories in Afghanistan and were
proceeding to consolidate their hold on Egypt. In tropical Africa,
where the scramble for colonial territory had already begun in un-
declared earnest (and from which exertions Gore-Browne was later
to benefit), officers and local levies were forcibly extending the
Queen's writ to regions as removed from each other as the hinter-
lands of the Gold Coast and Lagos and the Shire Highlands region
of Malawi. The Mahdi was seriously weakening the hold of the
Egyptian Khedives and their British advisors in the Sudan, and the
Germans were unexpectedly establishing outposts in Kamerun,
Togo, and Southwest Africa. Cecil Rhodes had begun to gain con-
trol of the world's greatest diamond mines and had entered the
parliament of the Cape Colony. Joseph Thomson was in the throes
of his epic journey across Masailand. Zambia had been entered ten-
tatively by missionaries, although the area around Gore-Browne's
future home at Shiwa Ngandu was still firmly controlled—as it had
been for many decades—by the chiefs of the powerful Bemba na-
tion. In the Americas, too, British merchants were active, advanc-
ing money to build railways and purchase the products of an
expanding frontier. At home William Gladstone governed at the
head of a strong Liberal government. A serious recession was be-
ginning and landowners and industrialists long accustomed to
having their own way were starting to experience the first major
constraints of legislation. A mere five weeks before Gore-Browne's
birth a Liberal fired the opening salvo in the electoral battles which,
as the century wore on, increasingly employed the ammunition of
class warfare. Conservatives were labelled representatives of a class
which neither toiled nor spun, and took money from real workers.
A new Britain was slowly emerging.
The Gore Brownes were thoroughly representative of and inte-
grated with that thin layer of elite energy which provided the main
outward thrust of Victorianism and gave to it an image of responsi-

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 " T H E S P R I N G OF LIFE" 3
bility, accomplishment, order, and noble morality. The Brownes
(Gore was a middle name incorporated by Stewart's branch into the
surname only from about the 1850s, and joined indissolubly by a
hyphen to the Browne only in the twentieth century; Stewart
hyphenated or did without according to whim, but mostly hy-
phenated) were of Anglo-Irish background, and on little evidence
claimed descent from Sir Anthony Browne, one of the closest as-
sociates of Henry VIII. In the eighteenth century this branch of the
Brownes had an estate in Co. Wicklow presided over by John
Browne, an artillery officer who had fought under the Duke of
Marlborough at Blenheim. His son Thomas, Stewart's great-
great-grandfather, lived in Dublin and was a merchant and an ar-
chitect of great energy. He gained much worldly success and had
four sons. Gore (1763-1843) became an officer, gaining victory and
fame in the West Indies, in Uruguay, in Holland during the
Napoleonic wars, and later in Afghanistan, before becoming suc-
cessively governor of Plymouth and general of the 44th Regiment.
Thomas joined the navy and rose through the ranks to become a
vice-admiral. William became a barrister. Robert Gore (b. 1754)
was Stewart's great-grandfather. A well-to-do military officer like
the first two of his brothers, he served and then profited by the
attentions of the Marquis of Buckingham, Lord Lieutenant of Ire-
land. When Buckingham left Ireland for England, Robert followed,
holding various offices of distinction including the deputy lieuten-
ancy of Buckinghamshire. He also served as colonel of the county
militia and justice of the peace, and was described as a man of
"ample means, fine presence, and courtly manners, much liked and
respected in those parts." 1 He died in 1836, leaving five children,
Louisa, Maria, Captain John William Barrington, Edward Harold,
and Stewart's grandfather, Thomas Gore Browne (1807-1887). The
most distinguished was Edward Harold (1811-1891). After Eton
College and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he won several
prizes and was elected into a fellowship and became senior tutor,
Edward Harold joined the Anglican church and was ordained into
the priesthood in 1837. In 1854, after writing a definitive treatise on
the Thirty-Nine Articles of Anglican faith, he was appointed Norri-
sian professor of divinity at Cambridge. 2 Ten years later, after pub-
lishing somewhat conservative theological sermons and gaining
public attention, he was offered the bishopric of Ely. In 1873, after
Samuel Wilberforce's death, Gladstone gave him the see of Win-
chester.

1. G. W. Kitchin, Edward Harold Browne, D. D. Bishop of Winchester (London,

1895), 4.
2. An Exposition ofthe Thirty-Nine Articles (Cambridge, 1850; London, 1853), 2v.
4 BLACK HEART

For Stewart, grandfather Thomas proved a source of emulation.

Born in 1807 at the family seat near Aylesbury to Robert and Sarah
Dorothea Steward, the daughter of a Dorsetshire politician (from
Melcombe), Thomas automatically entered the governing class
with the advantages of the day, including money. At 16 he became
an ensign in the 44th Foot Regiment, soon transferring to the 28th
Foot Regiment in which he became a lieutenant in 1826 and a cap-
tain in 1829. From 1832 to 1835 he served as an aide-de-camp to
Lord Nugent, British High Commissioner in the Ionian Islands.
Becoming a major, he transferred into the 41st Foot Regiment in
1836 and soon saw action and command during the Afghan War of
1842. Guarding the retreat to India, he distinguished himself in
suitably martial ways and was promoted to Brevet Lieutenant Col-
onel, being awarded the insignia of Commander of the Bath. After
service with the 21st Regiment and another promotion to become a
full lieutenant colonel, in 1851 he retired on half-pay in order to
spend three years as governor of St. Helena. There he extended the
water supply system of Napoleon's arid exile and proved himself
sufficiently to obtain the significant colonial governorship of New
Zealand. 3 On the way, during a period of leave in Britain, the bald
governor with the bristly mustache married Harriet Campbell of
Craigie, Ayrshire. The daughter of the advocate James Campbell
(an heir to a family fortune made in India) she seemed "a woman out
of a Book of Beauty . . . [with] ample white muslin flounces and
fine long dark tresses." 4 She was then twenty-five, a full twenty-
two years younger than the governor.
Thomas and Harriet Gore Browne arrived in New Zealand in
1855, when white immigrants had begun to outnumber the in-
digenous Maori and local responsible government by settlers had
been tentatively introduced. The incipient dominion's colonial and
settler institutions were moving into conflict, the 1853 constitution
had included no provisions for the representation of the Maori, and
race relations between light and dark were perceptibly worsening.
Land was at issue: The settlers coveted Maori-owned land; most
Maori were loath to sell, and few possessed the privilege of selling
communally-owned territory. Governor Browne was the weak
fulcrum balancing these dangerously opposed interests. On the one
hand, he sought to strengthen the colonial, imperial interest against
settler importunities. On the other hand, he and his gifted young
wife were, like so many later British governors in colonial Africa,
comfortable at the center of immigrant society. Gregarious by na-

3. Philip Gosse, Si. Helena, 1502-1938 (London, 1938), 321.

4. Journal o f C. W. and Emily E. Richmond, 12 April 1856, Auckland, in Guy
H. Scholefield (ed.). The Richmond-Atkinson Papers (Wellington, 1960), I, 210.
 " T H E S P R I N G OF LIFE" 5
ture, Gore Browne found friends and conviviality among the
settlers. "He was the centre of the social life of the capital, popular
with crowds, regular at church. He loved his musical evenings in
Government House and the society of gentlemen politicians." 5
Harriet Gore Browne was even more popular and, it seems, equally
dynamic and influential. She had the instincts of a natural politician.
"Remarkably energetic and clever, without being in the least strong
minded," a contemporary wrote, she is "on the contrary very
feminine and lady-like. She really governs the country as much as
the Governor, for he does nothing and writes nothing without
consulting her first. . . She seems to know and remember every-
body, having something to say suited to the person and adapted to
draw out his or her peculiar gift; perhaps this tact is her most re-
markable quality and fits her for the post so w e l l . . . . I have seldom
seen a woman I could more respect and admire; one could soon love
her too I have no doubt." 6 When Stewart Gore-Browne visited
New Zealand in 1950, he found that this appreciation of his grand-
parents was still strong. "I won't pretend," he wrote afterwards to
the Prime Minister of New Zealand, "that I was not deeply gratified
to find myself specially welcomed as 'Our Governor's grandson',
nearly a hundred years after he had l e f t . . . I did not know such
hospitality could exist anywhere." 7
The Maori, however, would have remembered Thomas Gore
Browne with far less affection. Although he wanted his policies to
be humanitarian, and was mindful of the underlying conflict be-
tween whites and Maori, he tended to underestimate the depth of
indigenous grievance and the extent of their determination never
again to be wronged without protest. Gore Browne neglected and
misunderstood Maori interests, failed ever to learn their language,
and too indecisively tried to resolve opposing Maori, settler, and
imperial conflicts.8
Unfortunately, the overweening attitudes of the local whites and
their insatiable hunger for land, together with the stubborn refusal
of Wiremu Kingi and his Maori followers to forfeit their own lands
in Taranaki (near New Plymouth), led in 1860 to the first of a decade
of Maori wars which only a more astute governor could have pre-
vented. Perceiving affronts and challenges where none were in-

5. Keith Sinclair, A History of New Zealand (Harmondsworth, 1959), 116-117.

6. June Maria Atkinson to Margaret Taylor, 3 October 1960, in Scholefield,
Papers, I, 641-642.
7. Gore-Browne to S. G. Holland, P.C. 16 February 1951.
8. Keith Sinclair, The Origins of the Maori Wars (Wellington, 1957), 142,203. For a
more vitriolic opinion of the governor, see Alfred Saunders, History of New Zealand
(Christchurch, 18%), I, 319-320, 334-343.
6 BLACK HEART

tended, Gore Browne flung down the gauntlet intemperately. His

"show of force" became a battle which unnecessarily embroiled an
entire colony and led, with much loss on both sides, to the further
subjugation of the Maori to immigrant importunities. Although
Stewart Gore-Browne grew up appreciating and seeking to emulate
a grandfather known within the family for his "enlightened" at-
titudes toward subject races, the governor bumbled more and
achieved less than even he then understood. "In a situation of great
stress, which called for energy, impartiality, and discernment,"
Thomas Gore Browne "possessed none of the requisite qualities. " 9
After leaving N e w Zealand, Colonel Gore Browne became gov-
ernor of Tasmania, then an infant Antipodean outpost, where he
exercised his gift for personal relations from late 1861 to 1868, being
awarded a long overdue knighthood in 1869. Aside from a sub-
sequent year (1870-71) as governor of Bermuda, Sir Thomas Gore
Browne and his six children lived thereafter for the most part in
London, spending parts of their summers and autumns at Craigie
reliving the nostalgia of empire. Stewart's father, Francis Gore
Browne, was the fourth born. Mabyl had been followed by Harold
C. Gore Browne (1856-1938), who joined the King's Royal Rifles
and saw action in India before becoming a colonel and enduring
both the siege and the defence of Ladysmith during the Anglo-Boer
War. Wilfred Gore Browne (1858-1928) went to Harrow like his
brother, spent two years in the army, but then went up to Trinity
College, Cambridge, where he took his degree in 1881. Ordained
the next year, he accepted Anglican curacies in the north of England
before being appointed rector of Pretoria in 1902. He became dean
and then, in 1912, was consecrated the first Bishop of Kimberley
and Kuruman, a diocese of 275,000 square miles which included
most of what is now Botswana. Mabyl, who never married, lived
with him. Francis was born in 1860, being followed by Godfrey
Gore Browne, (1863-1900), who joined the Royal Navy at 12 and
became a commander. Then there was Ethel, born in 1864, with
w h o m Stewart was to develop a strong and special relationship of
love.
Sir Thomas lived to see Francis do well at Harrow and New
College, Oxford, to be called to the Bar from the Inner Temple, and
to marry Helenor, daughter of John Archibald Shaw-Stewart, sec-
ond son of the sixth Baronet Shaw-Stewart and lineal descendant of
Sir John Stewart, illegitimate son of Robert III of Scotland, and
Helena Margaret Angela, only daughter of Boyd Alexander of Bal-

9. Sinclair, History, 117. See also Alan W a r d , A Show of Justice: Racial "Amalgama-
tion" in Nineteenth Century New Zealand ( T o r o n t o , 1973), 104, 119, 123-124.
 " T H E S P R I N G OF L I F E ' 7
lochmyle. Helenor's father was deputy-lieutenant and justice of the
peace of Renfrewshire. Helena was 24 and Francis (known as Frank)
22 when they married. Both had private means, but insufficient to
maintain their accustomed standards of living without Francis
doing well at the Bar. Frank was serious and scholarly about his
work, even after Sir Thomas died in 1887, shortly before Stewart's
fourth birthday, and financial resources became available.
When he learned of his grandfather's death, Stewart, the putative
heir to the family name, responded quietly. "We must get g a m m e a
new H u s b a n d . " 1 0 G a m m e was grandmy, alias Lady Harriet (d.
1906) and, as Stewart grew older and more estranged from his
mother, so he turned more and more to her (his maternal grand-
mother having died before his own birth), and to Aunt Ethel, for
support and reassurance. But at first his young life went well. A
healthy redhead, he was well looked after by a nurse and was doted
upon by his many relatives—the Campbells, the Shaw-Stewarts,
and the other Brownes and Gore Brownes. Sapphire Helenor, his
sister, was born in 1887, but her arrival apparently caused no per-
ceptible or lasting dislike. Only the arrival of Robert Francis, a
brother, in 1893, his incessant feelings of alienation from his
mother, his father's long hours and frequent absences from home
because o f important cases, and being sent away to boarding
school, upset the even tenor of Stewart's childhood.
For the likes of her first-born, Helenor Gore Browne was too
acidic about others and overly demanding of him. She cared little
for matters of the spirit—for the mysteries of the church and the
delights of the country—which early attracted Stewart. She fussed
much, and complained, and was frequently "inconvenienced." For
her elder son, at least, she lacked compassion. They were attuned to
different beacons from the earliest periods of nurturance; whether
or not she resented him unconsciously, or was somehow displeased
by his appearance, manner, or habits, to him her antipathy seemed
plain. The earliest evidence of his feelings are boyish letters penned
on ruled notepaper to his Aunt Ethel. He was about eight at the
time, and made it perfectly clear—in a style perpetuated for the
remainder of his life—that his mother was incapable of giving to
him, that Aunt Ethel did, and that they must carry on a clandestine
correspondence lest his mother become horribly jealous. " I f you
answer this," one letter reads, "please inclose it in a letter to
Grandmy as if it arrived alone Mother would see i t . . . " In a later
letter he told her of his love: " I do JO SO SO love you. Y o u are JO kind
to me. I cannot tell you how I love you. I shudder to think of that

10. Helenor to Frank Gore Browne, 18 April 1887.

8 BLACK HEART

horrid London. If you have time I should like a private interview of

a few minutes. Your very very very very very loving and extremely
affectionate dog." 1 1
For the rest of his life Stewart preferred going to Ethel rather than
his mother during school holidays—and periods of leave from the
army, or Africa. Brooklands, the house and almost perpetual social
scene in Weybridge presided over by Ethel and her husband, Hugh
Fortescue Locke-King (they married in 1884), was more congenial
to him than the Gore Browne houses in London, in Stroud,
Gloucestershire, or near Woking, in Surrey.
The Locke-Kings were interested in him as a person, and in what
concerned him. Like Stewart, his uncle was a man of common
sense, practicality, and generosity. Far more than Stewart, h o w -
ever, he had an ability to work with his hands, and to contrive
practical solutions to mechanical and structural problems. A grand-
son of the seventh Lord King and a nephew of the first Earl of
Lovelace, he had means, and used them to support his own inven-
tions and innovations. His father, Peter John Locke-King, was for
many years member of parliament for East Surrey. Born in 1848,
Hugh was called to the Bar from Lincoln's Inn in 1873. Twelve
years later both his father and elder brother died, and he inherited
Brooklands, the family estate on the River Wey. In addition to
serving as a magistrate for Surrey and Sussex, he travelled widely in
Europe and the Middle East, building and owning the Mena House
Hotel near the Giza pyramids in Egypt, and observing local prac-
tices wherever he visited. At home, after initially farming the vast
estate, he felled the pine trees at Brooklands to lay out the New
Zealand golf course, one of southern England's finest. He was re-
membered primarily for being among the earliest promoters of
automobiles in Britain, and the earliest to sponsor racing as a means
of encouraging improvements in automobile performance.
Ethel was seventeen years younger than her husband. Her
mother's daughter, she had a warm briskness, a strong ambition, a
robust faith in her own capabilities (which were great), a feeling
(which she and Stewart shared) for the romance of life, a
concern—which was very Victorian—for the "big" things; firmly
rooted, if conventional, convictions and ideals; and an infectious
gaiety. A witty story teller and a superb hostess, she ran what—had
she been interested in ideas and things of the mind, rather than
doers, and had she not been so caught up with the idle rich—would
have been called a salon. Ethel, attractive, prepossessing and, in later

11. Stewart Gore-Browne to Ethel Locke-King, 7 March and 3 May 1891. A

cartoon appended to the back of the letter indicated Stewart's willingness to slay
dragons for his aunt.
Another random document with
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 EXTENT OF THE FRUITFUL PERIOD.
The cessation of the menses, as I have remarked, is generally the
limit of the period of child-bearing; but this rule, like all others, has
its exceptions.
Bartholomew Mosse, according to Dr. Guy, mentions four cases of
women pregnant in their fifty-first year, and Dr. Labatt, of Dublin,
one; Knebel and Lamatte each one in the fifty-second year;
Bartholomew Mosse and Knebel each one in the fifty-fourth year; a
case of pregnancy at the same age (that of Mrs. Ashley) is also related
in the Edinburgh Annual Register for 1816, in the French accusation,
in which the succession to an estate was disputed on the ground of
the mother being fifty-eight years old when the child was born, and
the decision was given in favor of the fact.
Pliny, Valescus de Tarenta, and Marra, of Venice, record cases of
pregnancy at sixty.
Capuron, a French author, states that a woman of sixty-three was
generally believed in Paris to have given birth to a daughter.
Dr. Beck, of Albany, quotes a case from the Boston Medical and
Surgical Journal, of a woman at White Hall, New York, becoming a
mother at sixty-four.
A writer in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, Mr.
Robertson, states that out of 10,000 pregnant females registered at
the Manchester Lying-in Hospital, 436 were upward of forty-six
years of age. Of these there were—
 397 from 40 to 46
13 in their 47th year
8 „ 48th „
6 „ 49th „
9 „ 50th „
1 „ 52d „
1 „ 53d „
1 „ 54th „

In some rare instances, also, conception has been known to take

place prior to menstruation. Cases of premature fruitfulness are
related by high authorities. Montgomery delivered a female of twins
before the completion of her fifteenth year; La Motte and Sir E.
Horne give instances of pregnancy in the thirteenth year; the last-
named author another in the twelfth; and Bruce, in Abyssinia, and
Demboss, in Bengal, met with mothers of eleven years. These facts I
take from Dr. Guy.
I am next to speak of the cessation of the menstrual function, the
turn, or change of life, as it is called. And I will here observe, that this
period is as natural to the system of the female as puberty, or any
other. But notwithstanding it is so, it is important to be remembered
that all great changes or evolutions of the body render it probably, on
the whole, more liable to take on diseased action than it is at
ordinary times.
 IS THIS PERIOD A DANGEROUS ONE?
From a long-prevailing idea that the cessation of the menstrual
function is attended necessarily with a greater or less degree of
danger to the general health, it has been called the critical period.
Doubtless, the health of some persons does at this time become
worse; but, on the other hand, there are those who improve, and
become in every respect stronger at the cessation of the menstrual
function.
The learned Dr. Dewees, of Philadelphia, whose experience in the
treatment of the diseases of women was perhaps as great as that of
any other man, went so far even as to say, “The vulgar error that
women at this period of life are always in danger, is replete with
danger to the suffering sex;” and he continues: “I feel it a duty to
declare that they are not necessarily more obnoxious to disease at
this than at any other period of their existence.”
According to observations made on the bills of mortality in France,
by M. Benoiston de Chateaunauf, as quoted by Dr. Dewees, it
appears that fewer women die between the ages of forty and fifty
than men, or, indeed, at any other period of their lives after puberty;
and further, that this change is effected without much disturbance;
that they live not only longer than men, but are more free from
morbid inconveniences. These facts are well worthy of notice.
In some cases, the menstrual function becomes more copious
about the time at which it is to cease, and amounts almost, or quite,
to an hemorrhage.
Sometimes it ceases, and then returns again; and thus an
irregularity is caused. At length a final cessation occurs. In the place
of menstrual fluid, a sort of mucous discharge takes place at times;
the individual experiences lassitude and depression of spirits,
nervous complaints set in, and, in some cases, serious diseases come
on. But, poorly as the rules of health are by the many observed, the
picture is often reversed—the woman’s health becomes re-
established, and firmer and better than before. She appears often
more plump and ruddy after the change of life has taken place, and
does, in fact, seem to grow younger for a time.
 THE CHANGE OF LIFE.
Fanciful writers have sometimes indulged in poetic strains,
depicting the changes of this season, as being very unfavorable to the
personal attraction of woman. It is said, “that the bosom and cheeks
become flaccid, the skin is wrinkled and appears to be too large, and
loses its delicateness; the eyes sink in their orbits; the carnation of
the cheeks is supplanted by a yellow tint; that empurpled flush which
once, amid smiles, sat on her rosy lips, is chased away by a bluish or
leaden hue. Every circumstance proclaims that the season of the
pleasures is past, and that she can no longer rely on the attractions
peculiar to her sex.”
This delineation is by far more fanciful than true; and it oftener
happens that, in consequence of the pernicious habits of civic and
civilized life, changes as great, and often greater than these, occur at
a much earlier date than this critical period, so called. Were the laws
of life and health reasonably observed, there could no sudden or
considerable change take place at any one time in life. As middle age
merges into the more advanced, so, gradually and imperceptibly,
comes on the riper and more mature state, before which woman does
not arrive at the full time of her dignity, and the full period of the
magnitude of her moral power.
But it must be admitted that there are in some cases reasons why
the time of cessation of the menstrual function should be called the
“critical period,” or the “turn of life.” Thus, with the beginning of
suppression, or cessation, there may occur swelling of the abdomen,
nausea, sickness, and loathing of food, as in pregnancy.
The imagination, too, may have something to do with this matter,
for it is doubtless true, that some women “have such a dislike to age,
that they would rather persuade themselves that they are with child,
than suppose they are feeling any of the consequences of growing
old.”
I ought here to mention, that in those cases where pregnancy does
not exist, the abdomen is softer and more equally enlarged, and
swells more speedily after the obstruction than it does from real
pregnancy.
 Some persons are, at this period, so imaginative, as even to believe
that they actually experience motions of the child, whereas there is
only wind or flatulency in the bowels, which, by rumbling, or shifting
from place to place, causes a sensation analogous to that of the
motions of a real child. Some persons have even gone so far in this
matter as to believe that they had passed through the entire period of
pregnancy, and have called physicians and attendants, believing that
labor had actually began. And some physicians, even, have remained
many hours with these patients, when at last it has been discovered,
to the great mortification of all concerned, that one important
feature was yet wanting, in order for labor to take place, namely, the
presence in the mother’s womb of an actual child.
This change of life, I remarked, is a natural occurrence to every
woman. It is as natural for menstruation to cease as it is for it to
begin. Were the habits of society such as they should be, health, and
health only, would be the natural result in all these changes; but such
is not always the case. Some are barren and unhealthy, and have not
vital stamina enough for them ever to gain truly firm and enduring
health. Others, too, and probably a far greater number, have their
health destroyed, either by the ignorance of their parents or
themselves, or of both combined. In such cases, some of the
following symptoms may be noticed. If any organic disease is already
present, with many it appears to be aggravated or increased. This is
especially true in diseases of the womb and the breasts. It seems,
indeed, that cancer of these organs is more apt to become developed
about this time. Symptoms of dyspepsia are apt to be aggravated.
Some become more corpulent, and as corpulency is a state of disease,
more or less general debility, and inaptitude for walking and physical
exertion of whatever kind, is experienced. There appears also, at this
time, to be with many a greater tendency to inflammatory disease,
diarrhea, dysentery, cholera morbus, or, on the other hand, a
constipated state of the bowels; or the constipation may alternate,
with one or more of the former complaints.
But, as I have already remarked, there are other cases in which the
health becomes, in every respect, more firmly established and better
after menstruation has ceased, than it was before.
 MANAGEMENT AT THE CHANGE OF LIFE.
The explanation I have already given will indicate to you the
nature of the general management which should be employed at the
period of the cessation of the menstrual function.
I have said it should be regarded as a natural change in the system.
The best local and general treatment that can be adopted, therefore,
will be that which is calculated to fortify and invigorate the general
health. Every thing in diet, exercise, bathing, the daily occupation,
and the moral and mental habits of the individual, should be, as far
as possible, regulated according to physiological principles, and the
laws of health.
Especially let not fear excite in you any unnecessary alarm
respecting this period. Trust nature, and do by her properly, and she
will do safely, faithfully, and efficiently her own work.
Those methods of dosing and drugging the system which have by
many been practiced on such occasions, are, as a general fact,
pernicious, doing a great deal of harm. Those especially who take
powerful, and so-called expulsive medicines, with the view of forcing
nature to continue the menstrual discharge, render themselves liable
to serious injury. It is easy thus, by, as it were, a single misstep, to
seal the inevitable doom of life-long ill health.
Doctor Dewees, in speaking of the great advantages of a well-
regulated regimen in securing the woman against injuries which may
arise from the irregularities of the menstrual discharge at this period
of life, judiciously observes, “that a well-ordered course of exercise in
the open air in well-selected weather, and great simplicity of diet, is
of the utmost importance to the female, and should never be
neglected, if it be possible to indulge in them.”
By these means, the nervous, muscular, vascular, and lymphatic
systems are all preserved more certainly in equilibrium with each
other, since they are the best calculated to insure a reciprocation of
their respective offices, and, consequently, to maintain that
condition of the system termed health. Hence the justness of the
remark, that the women who live in the country, and exercise freely
in the open air; who have fulfilled their duties scrupulously as
mothers, by suckling their children agreeably to the views of nature;
who do not goad their systems by over-stimulating food and drinks;
who do not relax their bodies by too long indulgence in bed, have but
little suffering at this period.
The advantages of a suitable degree of care in regard to exercise,
diet, and all those habits that tend to the promotion of the general
health, will likewise appear evident when we take into consideration
the manner in which the system is sometimes found to suffer at this
period.
During that part of the woman’s life in which menstruation occurs,
the constitution is under the necessity, so to say, of forming not only
a sufficiency of blood for its own support, but a superfluous quantity
for the purposes of menstruation. Now it must be the order of
nature, that in a healthy and well-balanced constitution, enough
blood only will be elaborated for the normal purposes of the
economy; but if too great an amount is formed after the menses
cease, there will be no outlet for it, and as a consequence, there will
be, perhaps, fullness and congestion of the head, and other
symptoms of plethora.
For this reason, physicians have often thought it necessary to
abstract blood, and to use other depletive means. But I am led here
to remark, how very much better, under such circumstances, it would
be to employ fasting, or, at least, a proper degree of abstinence, and
the other measures calculated to keep off too great fullness of the
body. Nothing in the world is easier—provided a woman has
sufficient control over herself, and perseverance—than to vary to any
desirable extent, the quantity of blood in the system; and all
physicians agree that it is far better to regulate these matters by diet,
and other hygienic measures, than to have to resort to bleeding and
cathartics, provided that it can be done.
The practical deductions to be drawn from these remarks then, is,
that if, at the change of life, the woman feels any of the symptoms of
plethora and too great fullness in her system, she should adopt all
good rules in regard to the improvement of the general health, and
she should be especially guarded in reference to the amount and
quality of food taken. In so far as she attends to all these matters, will
she be more than doubly rewarded for her patience, her
perseverance, and her self denial.
In conclusion, I remark, that if any one of you who is about
arriving at the turn of life, feels that you are growing old, that you
will be less attractive to those about you, and that you will enjoy less
of the social pleasures of life after this change has taken place, there
is yet a comfort for you, even in this world. You will now no longer be
subject to those monthly troubles which, for these thirty years, have
been your lot. All the annoyance, the irregularity, the tardiness, the
suppression, and the pain—these all are now gone from you, no more
to return. No doubt you may feel sad as the sighing wind reminds
you in the autumn that we can be young but once. We all feel sad at
times when we think how age is creeping upon us. But may I not say
to you, there is yet that which can make us triumph over all of these
things, yea, over death and the grave.
 LETTER V.
OF MENSTRUATION.

Tardy and Suppressed Menstruation—Chlorosis—Sudden Check of the Menses.

One of the most important of all subjects connected with the

health of females, is that of disordered menstruation.
You will find, as you read medical works on Females, the word
amenorrhœa, which signifies a partial or total obstruction of the
menses in women, from other causes than pregnancy and old age.
You will find, also, the words menorrhagia, signifying an
immoderate flow of this discharge, and dysmenorrhea, meaning
difficult or painful menstruation.
Before proceeding to speak of obstructed menstruation, I ought to
make some remarks upon the too tardy appearance of this discharge.
As I have before observed, the catamenia usually appear at from
the fourteenth to the fifteenth years of age. Now, when there is a
failure on the part of nature to bring about this state of things, there
is not unfrequently a great deal of anxiety experienced on the part of
mothers and those most intimately concerned. If, likewise, the girl at
this time is attacked with any particular ailment, it is almost sure to
be attributed to this cause. Too often, under these circumstances, she
is also subjected to various modes of medical treatment, with the
view of forcing nature into that sort of work which it is believed she
ought to do, but will not. Now, the effect of such a course can be only
harmful, as a general fact. To aid nature, it should be remembered
that we must increase her powers, and not diminish them, as is
almost necessarily the case if a course of drug-medication is
practiced.
 Please notice, then, that I wish to persuade you that this plan of
drugging the system for tardy menstruation is a most unwise and
unnatural one. Attend well to nature, and nature will take care of
herself. Let me give you a few words from an honest, good man, Dr.
Dewees, who years ago went to his long home. He says:
“Our exertions in favor of such patients, should tend to the
invigoration of the system in general, and the development of the
uterine system in particular. The first should be attempted—First: By
the establishment of a regular course of exercise; such as riding on
horseback, when practicable; walking in proper weather; skipping
the rope within doors, when the weather will not permit exercise
abroad; dancing moderately, and with strict regard not to become
overheated, and cooling too suddenly. Secondly: By proper attention
to dress; wearing flannel next the skin in cold weather, and properly
protecting the feet and legs against cold; carefully avoiding damp
and wet places, and partial streams of cold air, especially when
warm. Thirdly: By a diet of easily-digested substances, both of the
vegetable and animal kind; avoiding all stimulating drinks, such as
wine, spirits, or beer, etc., under the specious pretext of their being
strengthening.”
I give you these words, not that I would altogether agree with every
idea advanced, but because of the general worth and correctness of
the remarks, and the high authority from which they come. I do not
believe it best for any one to wear flannel next to the skin, but I do
believe in guarding the body sufficiently against cold, a thing which
young ladies too often neglect. Dancing, too, as a general rule, cannot
be regulated in the way it should be; and as for animal food, it is not
necessary, to say the least.
I do not wish to appear to be fault-finding with your sex; but I
must say, in all frankness, that some have taken an unreasonable
course in regard to bringing on the courses, when they are tardy. The
following case happened to a physician of eminence: The girl was a
most amiable and interesting creature, for whom he was requested to
prescribe for the expected menses, but who had not one mark which
would justify an interference, and especially as she was in perfectly
good health. She was fifteen, it is true; and this was all that could be
urged by the mother in favor of an attempt to “bring down her
courses.” He relied too much upon the good sense of her anxious
parent, and freely explained himself to her. She left him apparently
satisfied with his reasoning, and he heard nothing of the poor child
for six months; but at the end of this time he was suddenly
summoned to attend her, as she was said to be alarmingly ill.
When he saw her, she was throwing up blood in considerable
quantities from the lungs; she died a few days after from the excess
of this discharge. The distracted mother told him, that though she
appeared satisfied with what he had said when she left him, she was
convinced he was wrong, and that her daughter’s health required the
immediate establishment of the menstrual evacuation. With this
view, she determined upon the trial of a medicine of much celebrity
in similar cases, vended by a quack. She procured it, and gave it
according to direction; in a few days her daughter became feverish,
lost her appetite, and frequently vomited; her strength failed, and
after a short time she was confined to her bed. She called upon the
“doctor,” and made known to him the condition of her daughter; he
encouraged her to persevere, and told her that the fever, etc., was an
effort nature was making for the end proposed. She persevered,
fatally persevered, for in a few days she lost her lovely and only
daughter. The medicine given in this case proved, on examination, to
be the oil of savin (juniperas sabina), a most active poison, and one
which, in the smallest doses, has been known to produce disastrous
results.
 EFFECTS OF WATER-TREATMENT.
There is one remarkable fact concerning the effects of water-
treatment, as affecting menstruation, which should here be spoken
of. Where a vigorous course of hydropathy is practiced for chronic
disease, the menstrual function, in some cases, ceases for months,
and even a whole year or more. I had first to learn this fact for
myself, no other practitioner ever having promulgated the doctrine,
so far as I know. And it is a remarkable fact, that in such cases no
injury arises from the circumstance; but the individual’s health
grows, month by month, in all respects better. No inconvenience is
experienced from the suppression, nor need the slightest alarm be
felt. The probable reason why menstruation thus ceases is, that a
vigorous action of the skin is caused by the water process;
elimination, or the throwing off of the waste, morbid, and impure
matters, is made to go on so rapidly and vigorously, that there is no
need of the purification of menstruation at the time. This doctrine,
however, is conjecture and mere speculation, and one that does not
appear to be susceptible of positive proof. That the occurrence does
takes place, and that women have, at the same time, been
remarkably benefited in health; cured, as we may say, of long-
standing and most obstinate chronic diseases, we know to be a fact.
But whenever retention of the menses occurs, and is not caused by
pregnancy, or by the age of the individual, at which the function
ceases naturally, or by a course of water-treatment, we are to suspect
some derangement of the general health. This is a natural function,
and if we find it ceasing when it ought to go on, we may safely
conclude, that the efforts of nature are by some means thwarted;
otherwise she would do her work.
 CHLOROSIS.
Retention of the menses is very often attended with what is
technically termed chlorosis.
The word chlorosis signifies a greenish, or greenish-yellow hue of
the skin, and might, therefore, be applied to certain affections
belonging to both sexes; but the term is “generally confined to that
modification of amenorrhea, which is attended by a dingy-pale, or
greenish color of the skin.” Chlorosis also goes often under the name
of green sickness.
In this disease there is “heaviness, listlessness of motion, on the
least exercise palpitations of the heart, pains in the loins, back, and
hips, flatulency and acidity in the stomach and bowels, a
preternatural appetite for chalk, lime, and various other absorbents,
together with many dyspeptic symptoms.” In the progress of the
disease the face and lips become pale, and after a time assume a
more yellow hue; there is great general debility, flaccidity of the
muscles, and not unfrequently, swelling of the feet and lower limbs;
there is, in short, a great variety of symptoms, varying more or less,
endlessly, as we may say, in different cases, and such as denote a
very depraved state of the constitution generally.
This disease is sometimes cured spontaneously. The simple force
of nature, acting also, perhaps, in consequence of favorable
circumstances as to air, exercise, diet, clothing, occupation, etc., is
often sufficient to effect a cure. Menstruation is brought on, and thus
the individual becomes well; but in other cases the affection is of a
very obstinate nature, and leads to disease of some important organ,
as the womb, bowels, lungs, etc., and ends at last in death.
Chlorosis has been sometimes mistaken for tubercular
consumption. When the patient has been cured, it has been said she
was cured of that disease. Thus it is that more persons are said to be
cured of this dreadful malady than actually have been. Chlorosis, as a
general fact, is by far oftener curable than consumption is. It is, in
fact, generally curable if taken in season, which, alas! cannot be said
of that most formidable disease, consumption of the pulmonary
organs.
Causes.—The causes of chlorosis are as numerous as the causes of
depraved health generally. Any thing which tends to lower the tone
of the system generally, during the period at which chlorosis
ordinarily comes on, may act as a cause, either directly or indirectly,
of the disease.
I will here give you a case which may serve to throw some light on
the subject.
A physician was called to visit a young lady of the city of New York,
of a wealthy family, in which, the mother being present, something
like the following conversation occurred:
Doctor.—Well, Miss, how are you to-day?
Patient.—Not very well, I am sorry to say.
D.—Do you attend school at present?
P.—Yes; I am at Mrs. ——’s seminary, in —— street.
D.—How long have you been there?
P.—Four years, including now and then a vacation of a few weeks.
D.—What have been your studies?
P.—Composition, Rhetoric, Mathematics, Philosophy, Chemistry,
Botany, French, Spanish, Music, and Drawing.
D.—Do you like your studies?
P.—Yes; some of them very much.
D.—How do you like the study of English composition?
P.—I can hardly say; we have to do every thing in French; address
our teacher in French when we go to school in the morning; speak
French in our exercises; in short, it is nothing but French all day.
D.—On the whole, you say you like your studies?
P.—Yes, when I am well; but latterly I have been so ill and low-
spirited I could not enjoy any thing. I like study when I am able to
perform it—like it very much. I used to succeed well; but latterly I am
discouraged, and do not accomplish any thing at all.
D.—Well, now let us know all about your health, and see if we can
find out what the matter is, and what it is proper to do. Here you
have a fine, airy residence, an abundance of the best things to eat and
drink, and to wear; good baths, good walks, and every thing about
you to make you happy and comfortable.
Mother.—She has never been regular, doctor, in her whole life.
D.—Does she take her regular baths?
M.—No; she won’t bathe hardly ever, and as for taking an
injection, she would die first.
P.—No, mother; I do bathe two or three times a week; but then it
chills me and makes me tremble so, I don’t get over it all day.
D.—But don’t chill yourself, use the water milder; but take your
bath every morning, or at least some time during the day. You cannot
be as clean as you should be in a dusty city like this, unless you wash
the body every day.
M.—The rest of us take a cold bath every morning, and it does us a
great deal of good; we would not do without it on any account.
D.—How much does your daughter walk every day?
P.—Walk! why! mother won’t let me walk. I only go to school and
come back, that’s all.
D.—You only go to school and back. Let’s see how far that is; about
a quarter of a mile there, and a quarter of a mile back. Then you walk
a half mile each day.
M.—She sometimes goes up and down stairs dusting off the
furniture in the house.
D.—That is all very good, so far as it goes. Does she ever make
bread?
M.—No; we get the bread at the baker’s.
D.—And rather poor stuff at that. Does she ever wash?
M.—Well, no; the servants attend to that. She has too many studies
you know, doctor, for that, and then—
D.—How is the patient’s appetite?
P.—Not very good; sometimes I eat a great deal too much, but the
most of the time I relish nothing. I am often wanting what I cannot
get; and food always distresses me, gives me acid stomach and heart-
burn, and so on.
M.—Yes; she likes chalk, charcoal, slate pencils, vinegar, and all
such things. She has always an appetite for these.
 D.—This is a morbid, diseased appetite. Do not blame her, she
cannot help that; if you or I had just such an appetite, and felt in all
respects as she does, we would very likely gratify it to as great an
extent. How does the patient sleep?
M.—Not very well; the bed is never right; sometimes we put on a
feather bed, and then she gets fidgety and says she cannot sleep; then
again we put the hair mattress over the feather bed; but this is either
hard, rough, or uneven—there is always some kink in her head about
the bed; it’s never right.
D.—Does she have her window open?
M.—No; she’s afraid of taking cold.
D.—What kind of pillow does she sleep on?
M.—Feather pillow, of course.
D.—Of course—a great many people are getting to sleep on hair
pillows—and some on harder ones even, such as palm leaf, corn
husks, straw, etc.; and some young ladies won’t have any pillow at
all; it makes them crooked not to lie straight. For my own part, I like
to have one pillow, stuffed with hair, moss, corn husks, or straw—
something that is clean, without smell, and cool. One pillow, and one
only, that is just thick enough, so that when I lie upon the side, as I
think persons who can ought, it is just comfortable. There is a great
deal of truth in the old maxim, “keep the feet warm and the head
cool!”
M.—I had not thought of that; I suppose the head does keep warm
enough of itself.
P.—O yes; you know, mother, my head is always burning hot, and
aches most dreadfully too.
D.—At what time of day does it ache most?
P.—It aches all the time; it’s never right.
D.—How do you feel in the morning when you get up?
P.—Very badly; I never sleep well; I feel heavy and weak, and my
head aches.
D.—How do you feel when you walk out in the open air?
P.—Well, I can hardly say; in fact I don’t feel as if I could walk. It is
as much as I can do to get up and eat breakfast and fix off for school.
 D.—Did you ever go to the country in the summer?
P.—O yes, to Massachusetts.
D.—How did you feel there? Could you walk?
P.—O yes; we had walking parties, rides, visitings, and a great
many things to take the attention; and I, in fact, either forgot all my
ailments, or else had none, I don’t know which. I have been to the
country a number of times, and whenever I go all my headache
leaves me, my appetite becomes good, and I am soon able to bear as
much exercise as any one need.
D.—Do you have any headache?
P.—Strange as it may seem, not the least.
D.—Do you study your books much in the country?
P.—No, very little; we go for relaxation and amusement; we read,
perhaps, a little, but do not undertake hard study.
D.—How much do you walk or ride in the day?
P.—Well, I can’t tell; we go sometimes in one direction and
sometimes in another. We even walk to neighboring villages; we go
some days, I should think, in all ten miles on foot; and I think,
indeed, sometimes twice that distance.
D.—Does this give you fatigue?
P.—It does at first, sometimes; but somehow my mind becomes so
interested with the country, I forget all my aches and pains; you
know I have always lived in the city, and the country seems to me a
new life; I seem to feel as happy as the birds.
D.—How do you sleep at night?
P.—It’s a rude place you know, and it is fashionable in the summer
there to sleep on straw beds. But it is no matter; we get so tired as to
be very glad to sleep any where. We could sleep on the floor, or
sitting up in a chair if necessary; when we get so tired sleep we must.
D.—How long do you stay in the country?
P.—Six weeks, and sometimes more.
D.—What kind of food do you eat?
P.—Plain food, such as the country people have. I generally take
bread, vegetables, berries, and milk. They have hams, pork, all sorts
of meat, and things of that kind; but you know father does not wish
me to eat meat; nor have I any particular relish for it. I sometimes
eat a little fresh butter along with my brown bread; I suppose I would
be just as well off without even that; I enjoy the bread, berries, and
milk very much.
D.—Does food agree with you in the country?
P.—Generally very well.
D.—How do you feel after you get back to the city?
P.—Very well for a time.
M.—I guess you would think so, doctor. She acts like a perfect
romp; there is no keeping her any where.
D.—It is natural for healthy girls to romp, as you call it. What
would a boy be worth, if he were not allowed plenty of exercise? Girls
must have their plays and sports, otherwise they will suffer in health.
Thus you perceive when your daughter goes to the country, takes
plenty of exercise, eats plain food, avoids excess in study, and lives
mostly in the open air, she very soon becomes well. Some, perhaps,
might tell you that all this is merely the result of a change; but, I ask,
if it is merely a change that makes her so much better in the country,
why does she not grow still better even when she changes back to the
city? The truth is, it is not so much a change, as it is the healthful
influence of air, exercise, diet, and freedom from excessive study,
which work so great a benefit to her health. You perceive, also, it is
not medicine your daughter needs. What has your family physician
said about this?
M.—Well, be sure, Dr. K—— used to give a great deal of medicine,
but lately he has changed; he says, in such cases it is not of much use.
All he ordered was some iron pills, as he called them; and he did not
seem to make much reckoning of these, either.
D.—I suppose not. He is an intelligent man—a man of great
experience; and he knows well that all well-informed physicians have
given up the idea of emmenogogues, or medicines, which have a
specific effect to bring on the monthly periods. The pills of iron are
supposed to be tonic; that is, they invigorate the system somewhat
for the time being; but these, even, soon wear out. You have to take
more and more of them, until at last they lose their effect altogether;
and worse than that, they in the end become debilitating. That is the
way with all medicines, not excepting even tonics. Physicians are in
the habit of thinking that they must order something from the
apothecary’s, even if it is nothing more than bread pills, colored a
little, to make them look like medicine. They think they must do
something, or else it would not be fair to charge for their visit.
Medical men, you know, must live by their profession; and people
have not been in the habit of thinking they must pay, unless the
doctor does something. For my part, I think that physician deserves
the most pay who does the least; that is, who will teach people to
cure themselves, and to keep well without medicine.
Thus, you perceive, I advise your daughter to take no medicine. If
there were any medicine in the wide world which I thought would do
her the least permanent good, I would advise it; but I do not believe
there is any such in her case. Correct her habits of life throughout,
and then, in due time, nature will of herself make all right. I advise,
then, a course something like the following: take your daughter at
once from school, no matter if she loses a year from her books. She
can practice music somewhat, the best of all her studies, except,
perhaps, reading and writing her mother tongue; but I would not
have her practice music too much; a half hour or an hour at a time,
perseveringly employed, and this two or three times a day, would be
sufficient. And if you choose to take up with my plain advice, let her
try her hand at the bread-trough and wash-tub. She is getting to be
quite along in her teens. Now let her imagine that she were to
become the wife of some honest, intelligent countryman—a
physician, merchant, or perhaps, best of all, a farmer—no matter
what, so that he be a good, honest, industrious, and worthy young
man. Suppose, now, that she really loved him, as I am sure she
would, although he is not rich, but in moderate circumstances; now,
I say, let her imagine that she is going to be a housewife, as well as
wife; let her suppose that she is to make his bread, cook his food,
clean his house, and do his washing, at least so far as her health
would permit, never further; at least we will suppose that she is to
understand all of these matters, and that she will habitually oversee
them, and take some part therein—we cannot suppose that a house-
servant, however good and faithful, will feel so deep an interest in so
important a matter as making the family bread, as the wife would. As
the wife loves the husband better than all the world besides, so she is
the one who is naturally expected to take a deeper interest in all that
pertains to his happiness and comfort, and general good. Now, I say,