VOL. LXXIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 34Q 



resemble each other so nearly that a Bambara from Galam, and a Mandinga from 

 the kingdom of Barrah, which extends from the sea-coast along the north side 

 of part of the river Gambia, can partly understand each other. Both nations 

 have also a custom of marking their children in various manners by incisions in 

 the skin, and that of filing their fore teeth (incisores) till they become quite 

 pointed, which I imagine they consider as being handsome. 



As the disease, according to the information I received, begins with a gradual 

 swelling of the testicles without any pain or inflammation, I am inclined to con- 

 sider it as a sarcocele. Heister, in his Surgical Institutions, says, that the dis- 

 ease begins and increases mostly in the same manner, when it affects the testi- 

 cles themselves ; but that he never saw any of them much larger than a man's 

 fist. This difference in the size does not, in my opinion, alter the disease ; for 

 we know, that the bronchocele is hardly known in some countries, that it is of 

 a moderate size in some others, and that in others again it has been seen to in- 

 crease to such an enormous bulk as to hang down over the breast and belly ; 

 yet this difference of size does not alter the nature of the disease, and it still 

 retains the same name. 



It is difficult to point out the causes of such a sarcocele, as consists in the 

 spontaneous tumefaction of the testicles themselves ; neither do I rind any satis- 

 factory ones assigned by the author I have just now quoted ; and as I have not 

 been in Galam, I can hardly say any thing probable concerning those of the dis- 

 ease I have described. I shall, however, suggest the following. As polygamy is 

 lawful and customary among the Bambaras, as well as among all the other na- 

 tions about the river Senegal and Gambia, and as the riches and consequence of 

 a man are estimated by the number of wives that he keeps, the chiefs of the 

 people have always a great number of them. I have been told, that the Batche- 

 rees of Galam have their victuals most immoderately seasoned with Cayenne 

 pepper ; and I know myself, that the opulent people of the Mandinga nation 

 make the same abuse of it. This may perhaps be done with a view to its ope- 

 rating as a provocative ; for it has a peculiar effect on the seminal vessels, and 

 will produce erections, attended with a dull pain and turgescency in the testicles: 

 I was therefore inclined to think, that the immoderate use of this pepper might 

 partly be the cause of this disease ; but then again this could not be the case in 

 the man I saw at Senegal, where none, or at least very little of it, is used. The 

 most probable cause of it seemed to be an hereditary disposition ; for, as it only 

 begins to show itself about the age of 25 and 30, a man may be father of a great 

 many children before it takes place, and as it seems to be confined to families of 

 the principal people of the Barnbara nation, it may be, that the man I saw 

 afflicted with it at Senegal was descended from such a family, and made a slave 



