ZULU MEDICINE AND MEDICINE-MEN. 31 



liaiidful in quantity, may be pounded in a cupful of cold 

 water and drunk, a siniilai' quantity of bark l)eing further 

 infused in two cupfuls of hot water for administration, when 

 cool, as an enema. Many of these remedies are probably simply 

 astringents, from the large amount of tannin they possess ; 

 but it is likely that some are not so, and among these one might 

 come across something worth having. But only a thorough 

 analysis and experimentation can prove or disprove this. 



Piles {ukweleka) are not clearly distinguished by the natives 

 from chronic dysentery, and for them I find the isiKhwa is 

 employed, as described above. Also the roots of the 

 iCimamlilo (Pentanisia variabilis) and the bark of the 

 umKhovothi (Chastachme meyeri or aristata) are used. 



Grangrenous rectitis. 



A loathsome disease, occasionally met with in Zululand, 

 Natal and Pondoland, and much dreaded by the natives, is 

 the isiGwehedla (otherwise called inGnmhliane, umGnhliane, 

 or uMoya). It may be, and I think probably is, a form of 

 gangrenous rectitis, although Sir Patrick Manson, in his book 

 on ' Tropical Diseases,' does not mention that disease as 

 existent in these parts, nor do the symptoms of both, as 

 explained by him, exactly coincide. 



The course of the South African disease is as follows. It 

 sets in with fever, headache, abdominal pains, generally about 

 the navel, and sometimes vomiting ; diarrhoea with blood, or 

 bloody mucus, passed along with or after the stools; sub- 

 sequently, in some cases, an eruption of small pimples, 

 distributed irregularly about the body, not going on to 

 suppuration, and afterwards dying away, but always a more 

 pronounced eruption of similar pimples about the pudenda 

 (anus, vagina and penis), subsequently suppurating and 

 uniting in one exuding sore surface. There is no itching or 

 pain attached to this eruption, which has been likened to the 

 eruption occurring about the mouth in cases of feverish 

 catarrh. There is loss of appetite, with absolute prostration, 

 so that the patient has not even strength enough to sit up. 



