APPENDIX. 



I subjoin to the above enumeration of medical 

 plants, a remedy derived from the animal Kingdom, 

 one, which, if tried properly, will in all probability 

 become an article of commerce. I allude to the 



HYRACEUM,* 



much valued by many farmers, and well known 

 amongst, them, by the rather harsh name of Das- 

 jespis, Thunberg, and other travellers, mistook it 

 for a kind of bitumen ; but it is in fact the secre- 

 tion of a quadruped, which is common throughout 

 the Colony, and that lives gregariously on the 

 rocky summits of mountains, viz., the Klipdas or 

 Hyrax capensis. It is worthy of note that this 

 production has baffled the researches of eminent 

 Zoologists, who have failed from even minute dis- 

 section, in discovering any specific secretory organ, 

 from which this matter could be derived. It may 

 be asserted, however, that the Hyraceum is pro- 

 duced by the uropoetical system of the animal just 

 named, and in order to explain this seeming anomaly, 

 it must be observed that the Hyrax drinks very 

 seldom, if ever. Its urine, like that of the Hare, 

 is not thin and limpid, as in other quadrupeds, but 

 thick and of a glutinous nature. From a peculiar 

 instinct, these animals are in the habit of secreting 

 the urine always at one spot, where its watery 

 parts evaporate in the sun, while its more tenacious 

 portions stick to the rock, and harden in the air. 

 The fresh urine of the Hyrax is of a reddish tint, 

 and this has given rise to the opinion of those, who 

 took this production for a kind of menstrual secre- 

 tion. 



This substance is common on our mountains, and 



* Cf. Dr L. Fikentscher, Das Hyraceum in historischer, chemischer, 

 pharmaceutischer, and therapeutischer Beziehung. Erkngen, 1851. 

 Octvo. 



