312 ZULU VVITCn D()('T()RS. 



Dr. Bon fa also reports a case in which the midwife thought 

 that there was something- that had not come away. She intro- 

 duced her hand and removed something, and the woman immedia- 

 tely died. She had pro])abiy taken out ])art of the uterus. 



I had a case oif my own recently in which the midwife 

 tried to remove the uterus, thinking that it was something that 

 ought to come away. At each such attempt the woman fainted. 

 This midwife was somewhat faint-hearted, so she sent for ^he 

 doct( r. All that was necessary was to replace the uterus inside 

 the pelvis. I ha\'e had reix>rted to me a large number of cutting 

 operations by the native doctor during child-birth. The doctor 

 uses a knife or an assegai, or, very commonly, a piece of broken 

 bottle. Fatal results or chronic invalidism often follow, the 

 frequency depending on the thoroughness with which the doctor 

 has done his work. In cases of delayed labour it is a favourite 

 practice to the native doctors to cut up the child and remove it 

 piecemeal. This procedure is often disastrous to the mother, 

 always so to the child. 



Dr. Bon fa reports a case in which the midwife undertook 

 .so to cut up the child. She cut off one foot and was |)roceeding 

 to cut off the leg when the hu.sband interfered. The child was 

 born, and is now healthy, but minus one foot. Such cases migiit 

 be multiplied indefinitely, but it is not necessary. In cases of 

 normal lab(.>ur, the native woman gets along almost as well as do 

 white women. In abnormal lalxjur they are truly between the 

 devil and the deep sea. Shall they die of neglect or shall they 

 die of ignorance and meddlesome inteiiference ? Fov a very large 

 nimiber of them do die. It is really a deplorable state of affairs, 

 the way the Zulu woman suffers and dies in child-birth. But it 

 is superfluous to cite further cases or present further arguments 

 to prove that the present methods of meeting the medical needs 

 of our native population are deplorably inadequate. The Natal 

 and Coastal Branch of the British Medical Association, in a 

 meeting held in 1914, passed the resolution " That this meeting 

 considers that the present system of licensing 'medicine men' is 

 a disgrace to Natal." This resolution was aimed in the right 

 direction, but it did not carry far enough. The native doctor in 

 Natal is an evil, but the great evil is the lack of something better. 

 The people that the native doctor kills is a small thing coni])ared 

 with the number of people who die for want of the proper atten- 

 tion, which the native doctor cannot give because he does not 

 know how. Destructive criticism is easy. " The present system 

 of licensing medicine-men is a disgrace to Natal." But where is 

 the constructive criticism? What are we going t(^ do about it? 



In my o})inion it is a mistake for the Govermiient to accept 

 a license fee ifrom the native doctor and to give a license to hini. 

 I am not prepared to define the .standing of a licensed native 

 doctor from a technical, legal, standpoint, but to the understanding 

 of the natives and to the public generally, for the Governmerit 

 to give a man a license to practise medicine means that the (jov- 



