TAMPAN OF AFRICA. 243 



was a native of the West Indies, but the man to whom he had 

 lent the shoes came from Sierra Leone; and this circumstance 

 was considered very remarkable in conjunction with the fact, 

 that in some water brought by Dr. Stanger from the river Sinae 3 



dn the coast of Africa, one very nearly perfect specimen, and 

 fragments of others, very similar to, if not identical with, the 

 one noticed in the negro's foot, were found. Whence it was 

 supposed that the disease was contracted from some external source. 

 In this account of the case, though necessarily imperfect, 

 there does not appear to be anything very " mystical/' and still 

 less does it seem to deserve the term " nerdachtig/' so need- 

 lessly applied to it by Dr. Kiichenmeister. 



it 



Whilst remaining at the village of Ambaca, on the east coast 

 of Africa, Dr. Livingstone, in his ' Missionary Travels in South 

 Africa/ gives the following account of the attacks of an insect 

 belonging to the group of Acarida : 



" When sleeping in the house of the Commandant, an insect well known 

 in the southern country by the name of Tampan, bit my foot. It is a 

 kind of tick, and chooses, by preference, the parts between the fingers or 

 toes, for inflicting its bite. It is seen from the size of a pin's head to 

 that of a pea, and is common in all the native huts in this country. It 

 sucks the blood until quite full, and is then of a dark-blue colour, and its 

 skin so tough and yielding that it is impossible to burst it by any amount 

 of squeezing with the fingers. I had felt the effects of its bite in former 

 years, and eschewed all native huts ever after ; but as I was here again 

 assailed in a European house, I shall detail the effects of the bite. These 

 are, a tingling sensation of mingled pain and itching, which commences 

 ascending the limb until the poison imbibed reaches the abdomen, where 

 it soon causes violent vomiting and purging. When these effects do not 

 follow, as we found afterwards at Tete, fever sets in ; and I was assured 



