526 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



MEDICAL PKACTICE IN DAMAEALAND. 



By C. G. B0TTNER. 



THE missionary in Damaraland has also to be a physician. The 

 stations in that country being cut off from regular intercourse 

 with European civilization, the missionary societies have been obliged 

 to give their agents a medical education, in order, if for no other pur- 

 pose, that they may be able to doctor themselves and their families. 

 From my own station of Otimbingue, which is M'ell situated as com- 

 pared with some of the others, I would have had to go at least a month's 

 journey to find a regularly graduated physician. Of course, the natives 

 are glad to avail themselves of the benefit of what medical skill we may 

 have, the more especially as they have learned that we will never in- 

 tentionally do them any harm, while they are always suspicious of 

 their own doctors and sorcerers. Hardly a day passed during my 

 residence in the country that I was not called upon by some sick per- 

 son ; so that I am able to speak from the results of a seven years' busy 

 practice. As I could converse with the natives with perfect freedom 

 in their own language, I had frequent opportunities to consult with 

 their professionals, and was able to learn more of their notions than 

 usuall}^ falls to the lot of the ordinary explorer ; so that, though not a 

 physician by profession, I believe I can make some interesting contri- 

 butions to medical lore. 



One of the most curious results of my observations is that the cli- 

 mate of Damaraland possesses what we might call an antiseptic char- 

 acter for several months of every year. The quality is an attendant 

 of the long annual drought. Every living thing suffers during that 

 period from the excessive heat, and much comfort is impossible, even 

 in the shade, while, in places exposed to the warm winds, the ther- 

 mometer has risen to 129° ; and the sand, unmoistened for six months, 

 becomes so hot that I have seen eggs hardened in it. This arid heat is 

 opposed to the propagation of ferment, for it dries up everything that 

 is exposed to the wind before it has time to sour. No manifestations 

 of tuberculosis are known. Wounds of every kind heal remarkably 

 quickly and well, without enough suppuration taking place to make 

 the bandages stick. The manner in which large, neglected wounds 

 heal of themselves would form an interesting study for a professional 

 surgeon. I observed a case of a Ilerero whose right lower arm had 

 been shattered in battle by a musket-ball. The healing process had 

 worked itself out in such a way that the whole lower arm with all its 

 muscles had become withered and useless, while the upper-arm bone 

 was whole and covered at its lower end only with the brown skin. All 

 the muscles and ligaments of the elbow-joint had vanished, while the 

 shoulder-muscles remained, so that the unpleasant sj)ectacle was pre- 



