When Ellen White lived in Australia in the late 1800s, a nurse from Battle Creek Sanitarium, named Sara McEnterfer lived with her.  Since there wasn’t any hospital nearby, Miss Sara visited neighbors who were sick and in need of medical help.  Most people didn’t know what to do to help someone who was sick and often did something that made things worse.

One of the first people to need Miss Sara’s help was nine-year-old Willie.  When Miss Sara arrived at Willie’s house, she found Willie hot with fever.  His eyes were red and swollen from crying.  “Now tell me all about what happened,” nurse Sara said to Willie’s aunt who was taking care of him.

“About a week ago, he stepped into a hole where some broken glass had been thrown, and cut a gash in his ankle an inch and a half long and as deep as the bone,” the aunt explained.  Willie’s mother had rubbed pig fat, called lard, into the wound and tied it up but it continued to get worse.

Willie’s father took him a long way to see the doctor.  The doctor cleaned the cut and gave Willie some medicine.  The doctor told Willie’s father to use bread-and-milk poultices on the wound every few hours.  Willie’s family didn’t know how to make the poultices but they did the best they could.  They used cold milk to soak the bread and placed it on Willie’s ankle.  It didn’t help and they feared the doctor would have to amputate.

Miss Sara looked at the leg.  “It’s blood poisoning, and a serious case,” she said.  “Put the kettle on and heat water immediately.  We’ll do all we can to save the leg.”  She said she would use hot and then cold, wet, flannel cloths, called fomentations and then wrap the ankle in charcoal poultices.  These treatments were to draw out the poisons, bring Willie’s fever down, and help healthy blood to circulate through the poisoned foot.   Miss Sara did these treatments several times a day.  Once, when Miss Sara removed a charcoal poultice, a piece of glass the size of a kernel of wheat was on the top of the wound. 

Willie’s cut began to heal and the treatments were given less often.  Ten days later Willie was able to tell his astonished neighbors the story about the wonderful cure with just hot and cold water and charcoal.