ZULU IIEDICINE AND MEDICINE-MEX. 55 



be repeated every day as long as required. Another larger 

 kind of gladiolus (also termed isiDica) having a raceme of 

 large-sized orange-yellow flowers, is likewise employed for 

 the same pui'pose. Or the large tuberous root of the is-lNicazi 

 (Cissus cuneifolia) is chopped and boiled in a quart or so 

 of water to form an enema. Other remedies are the isiNdi- 

 l/andii/a tree (Bersania lucens), of which the bark is used; 

 and the u mTimafane or isiNy ivane ( E o y e n a lucid a) , prepared 

 as an enema. 



Djsmenorrhoea is most generally due to chlorosis or am^inia, 

 and for such iron is the orthodox European specific. It is 

 another proof of the curiously correct insight of the Zulu 

 doctors that they, too, were aware of this latter fact, and in 

 their treatment of painful menstruation regularly pre- 

 scribed, in the old iron-smelting days, a powder made from 

 the dross or slag\ 



If impotency is lamented in the case of the male, sterility 

 in the female is even more deplored, if only that a heavy price 

 has been paid for her. The native understands nothing of the 

 causes of barrenness, for the reason that he is ignorant of the 

 whole physiology of procreation. Nevertheless, he has 

 several remedies which, when they chance to find the condi- 

 tions corresponding to their peculiar properties, appear to be 

 efRcacio.us. 



A common specific is the beautiful liliaceous IHlamvu 

 (Grloriosa virescens), whose roots are pounded, mixed with 

 food and eaten by husband and barren wife, with the result, 

 as they say, that the latter conceives. We have recently 

 heard of a discovery that yeast has proved an effective cure 

 for barrenness in cows, and the explanation given (whether 

 correct or not, I cannot venture to say), was that the yeast 

 had the effect of killing the particular microbes responsible 

 for the viterine disease. Now, if there be any .truth in such a 

 statement, the iHlaiavu, inasmuch as it is a well-known lice- 

 killer, may also have the nature of a germicide, and act on 

 human beings in a similar way to the yeast on cattle. 



Other native doctors prescribe the flowers of the isiNama 



