ZULU MEL)IC[NE AND MED.ICINE-iMEN. 7 



Kiknyu, n-c/oma, temporary madness), and isa-nttui (the 

 sineller-out — probably from a now obsolete Zulu word nuhisa, 

 abbrev. form nnnd meaning to "help to smell out"), and so 

 called from their practices respectively of drununing- or beat- 

 ing on a hide, or perhaps originally on a drum, during certain 

 ceremonies, and of " smelling out " all manner of secret evil 

 and the workers thereof. 



(5) The Nature of Native Medical Practice. 



If we examine the Kafir doctor's pathological knowledge 

 we find it mostly amounts to nil. His entire acquaintance 

 with the structure of the human body is drawn from its 

 analogy with the anatomy of the beasts, with whose bodily 

 structure he is, indeed, remarkably familiar. You could put 

 to him few questions as to the placing of the bones and the 

 various organs in the body of an ox, pig, or monkey that 

 wovild considerably embarrass him. He could tell you some- 

 thing, at any rate, about the form and appearance in health 

 and disease of the respiratory, digestive, and circulatory 

 organs ; l)ut the whole nervous system, save the bare existence 

 of the brain and spinal cord, is to him a perfect blank. He 

 possesses no name for nerves and knows naught of their exis- 

 tence.. A similar state of ignorance reigns throughout the whole 

 domain of physiology. He could not even give a school-boy 

 explanation of the functions of any one of the principal organs. 

 He knows that the blood " runs " through the body, but he is 

 not aware of any connection between the circulation of the 

 blood and the beating of the heart. 



Despite the fact that the Kafir doctor is so uninformed as 

 to the causes and nature of diseases, he is conversant enough 

 with their symptoms. Indeed, to him the symptoms are the 

 disease, and the great rule of his pathology is : As many sym- 

 ptoms, so many diseases. A person might be suifering with an 

 unhealthy liver and so be afflicted with pain in the right 

 shoulder. The latter would be regarded as a separate com- 

 plaint and called inBhoho, while the former (or liver symptoms) 



