The Women's Christian College,
Cathedral P.O., Madras.
July 31, 1927.Dear Miss Turner,
Miss McDougall's remark to me the other day that she had been writing to the Mount Holyoke employment bureau about me reminded me that I must be getting lines out for a job when I get back. It's quite a time off, but when it takes so long & when I shall ened one so badly, I feel I must make a start.
Now for the kind of job. I think I must quit dabbling and begin to concentrate a bit. I must make a stand for either Zoology or Physiology. It is right difficult to distinguish between which I am best fitted for and which I best like to do. But although I know full well that I am not and can never be either a Zoologist or a Physiologist, yet I think at times I can be a teacher, and I know I enjoy teaching the Physiology better. (That despite my pleas with Eleanor not to give up the Zoology here - I am still unchanged on that point.) So up in the Himalaya Mountains this summer, I decided my lot was to be cast with Physiology.
Of course, I don't really know much Physiology, but with my teaching of a more or less elementary variety for four years, my zoology background, & organic & physiologic Chemistry, I, at least, have a start.
Now I can't start in studying until I've retrieved my finances a bit & I must also be saving much more than at present for my old age (Mercy, I'm almost 30 now!) That means a respectable salary. Would it be better to try for a position in a small college similar to Connecticut or Oberlin for instance where I might get a combination job in Zoo. & Physiol. such as Histology & Physiology (which I'd enjoy as a combination) & as I could, getting in Physics & more Chem. like Qual. & Quant. & Physiology at Woods Hole or Harvard in the summer. Or would it be better to be a smaller frog in a bigger puddle of a university where I could eventually hope to stay on & get a degree?
I think when I get to the point of researching it will be along the lines either of digestion or foods from a physiological chemistry point-of-view. India has certainly stimulated an interest in foods which I never had before, and has made me realize how little I know about how the data & information we use for our European diet statistics & tables are obtained. In other words I really know nothing about food analysis & I think I'd like to.
Well, that's only to indicate the direction of my train of thoughts so that if a job should happen along to your notice which fitted in with them perhaps you'd let me know.
India continues fascinating. Our trip to the northern cities and Kashmir this summer was a thriller. Miss Wells certainly knows how to see things & we saw lots including the Taj Mahal which is assuredly exquisite; camel caravans coming through the Khyber Pass; and the quaint, unspoiled Indian State of Udaipur with its arched palace gateways and lake palaces which seemed like places out of Arabian nights; and finally Kashmir with its scenery (which I'm sure can't be surpassed) and its interesting peopel & places. Of course I loved the trekking up and up into the mountains to Sonamarg where we camped in a heavenly spot under superb snow capped mountains and looking up a so-called Glacier Valley.
The most thrilling expedition we took was to a place of Hindu pilgrimage, Amarnath Cave. We had been advised not to do it because the snowbridges had begun melting which meant we must take to trailless sides of the mountains covered with loose sliding shale which sloped steeply down to the rushing river below. But when we discovered a whole party consisting of a forester & his wife several coolies & several Hindus going for "pujahs", one other of our party & I decided to go, too. It was really exciting & I was right glad to have a coolie to lead me by the hand across those shale banks. And the last pull, three miles up a valley of fairly soft snow going consistently up finally to 13,000 ft. was a bit hard on my respiratory mechanism. But I got there last but I was the only European at least who really went up & into & explored the Cave & got snaps of the Cave & its ice shrine. And coming down was great sport - in an honest-to-goodness snowstorm & simply sliding down the snowbanks. I wouldn't have missed it for a lot.
I'm contemplating Burma for the next holidays. [smiley face]! - Cholera is our chief concern at present - we're all being inoculated - Sore eyes in our social work centers is our next concern. I feel quite like a Public Health nurse treating groups of kids with boric acid and argozol. One needs to be versatile & healthy in this land. I'm glad I'm the latter anyway.
Love,
D. Elizabeth.