18 REV^ ALFRED T. BRYANT. 



swellings with iYoli (Stramonium) leaves. The leaves of the 

 umThomhho (Cissampelos torulosa) runner are used for 

 the same purpose. From time to time a clyster, consisting of 

 one large cupful of the decoction, may be administered. 



Though other plants are used in the Cape Colony — the 

 u J iiBangandlala, or, siSi there called, umBangandlela (Hetero- 

 morpha arborescens), for instance — the method of treat- 

 ment of the Xosa doctors is almost identical with that above 

 given, and the effect of their remedies, though the plants are 

 different, is said to be the same. Of the plants used by the 

 Zulus, the iThetlie} uMathanjana, nMafhnnga, are probably 

 really good medicines. Others, like the isiZimane, are to be used 

 cautiously, as probably powerfully poisonous. The iTliondo 

 climber is also used for the relief of the chest symptoms of 

 scrofula, and the imFuzane herb for those of the stomach. 



Intestinal Parasites. 



IJxJiavibhi. 



There is a complaint comparatively common among the 

 Kafirs of these parts which seems to be unknown to medical 

 science. It appears to be caused by an intestinal parasite 

 called by the Zulus iKIiamhhi (sometimes iQhotJio or iBhun- 

 gane). This is an imago of a beetle measuring from a quarter 

 to half an inch in length, with greenish-black elytra. The 

 beetle is almost identical in appearance with the dung-beetle 

 found in fresh cow-dung. 



Specimens of the beetle were obtained by me in June, 1 903, 

 at first hand from a sick native girl in my charge in Zululand, 

 who had been passing them periodically in as many as a 

 dozen or more at a single evacuation throughout a period of 

 ten years or more. The specimens were submitted to Dr. 

 Warren, Director of the Natal Museiim at Maritzburg, and they 

 were passed on by him to Dr. L. Peringue}'', the well-known 



> An allied plant of the same genus as the iThetlie, viz. the Poly gala 

 senega, has a place in the British Pharmacopceia as a valuable stimu- 

 lating expectorant for chronic chest ailments. 



