OPPOSITION TO BELIEF AS TO TSETSE. 147' 



• certain animals, especially the ox, horse, and dog.* Dr. 



Livingstone's statements on this point were severely criti- 

 cised by Mr. Erskine, whose theory was that the deaths 

 of the animals were to be attributed more to change 

 of grass or climate than to the bite of such a small fly as 

 the Tsetse. Referring to Dr. Livingstone's assertion that 

 the natives of the Matabele country held the belief that the 

 Tsetse-fly destroyed their cattle, he said that natives of the 

 west of Africa, in whose country the fly was to be found 

 and who could not keep cattle, did not attribute the 

 destruction of their cattle to the fly." 



[Copied from The Entomologist, Vol. V., Dec. 1870 

 p. 217, where the above report is reproduced.'] 

 39. 1870. Edward Newman. 



Note on Mr. St. Yixcent Erskine's Paper referred 

 TO ABOVE {The Entomologist, Vol. V., Dec. 1870, p. 218. 

 "Having invariably maintained that the word Tsetse 

 implied a disease rather than an insect, and was apphed 

 indifferently to all flies that settled on diseased cattle, or 

 indeed on any cattle, and having incurred an overwhelm- 

 ing amount of ridicule for holding so heterodox an opinion 

 I am delighted to find the opinion held also by a resident' 

 who has every means of obtaining the best information' 

 1 have always protested against the importation of a 

 myth like the Tsetse into the domains of science • the 

 mixture of truth and fable in matters of science is always 

 to be deprecated. The Cholera-fly and the Aphis vastator 

 are banished from the domain of science ; it is abundant 

 time to banish their African congener." 

 40. 1870. Karl Mauch. 



" Karl Mauch's Reisen im Ii^-neren vox Sud-Afrika " 

 {mtlmlungen aus Justus Perthes' Geographischer Anstalt 

 ubermchtige Neue Er/orschungen auf dem GesammtgeUeie 

 der Geographie von Dr. A. Petermann. 16. Band P W 



Letter written from Potchefstroom, on June 30 1869* 

 describing the author's journey from Lydenburg to 

 Inyati, July 10 to October 17, 1868 :-[Translation.l 

 The pack-ox, that I took with me from Lydenburg 

 proved himself the most incapable beast of burden for the 

 long journey. ... In spite of every attention, he soon 

 * Cf. [52.] 



