I read with interest Maurice King’s obituary (Other lives, 15 November). He was a great man. He wrote an amazing book entitled Medical Care in Developing Countries, which was published 1966. I went to Botswana in 1968, aged 25, and took the book with me as diseases there were completely different – mainly infections, TB, bilharzia and snakebites. It was invaluable in a two-doctor hospital in Lobatse, and saved a few lives.
The other book I took with me was Farquharson’s Textbook of Operative General Surgery, which was like a recipe book – ie, cut along the dotted line. You just needed to know your anatomy. I did my first tracheostomy reading from the book, held by a nurse, while doing it. Wonderful times.
