INTRODUCTION 15 



season. It was some time before they could be got to come 

 to us for treatment and their faith stuck for long to their 

 own cures, which were often strange and always primitive. 

 Thus, for guinea-worm they would put on chopped leaves 

 plastered over with cowdung, which generally had the effect 

 of inflaming the part very much ; and for headaches they 

 tied a string, rubbed in the juice of some leaf, tightly round 

 the temples ; and gashed with a knife any part of their bodies 

 where they suffered pain to let blood. At times there was a 

 good deal of sickness among the men, especially when the 

 Expedition came into touch with large villages and stations, 

 and the way they always attempted to avoid coming up for 

 treatment led to such serious results that we were obliged to 

 institute medical inspections, with serious penalties for the 

 concealment of ills. 



Before leaving the subject of hygiene, there are two 

 articles to which I wish particularly to refer, the one that 

 it may never be forgotten by the intending explorer ; the 

 other, that it may be excluded from his equipment. These 

 are the hot-water bottle and the filter. In all cases of 

 sudden colics and fevers, the hot-water bottle for alleviating 

 pain and starting sweats is a priceless boon, which we grate- 

 fully hugged to ourselves on many occasions, while the 

 filter, owing to rough usage in transport or the carelessness 

 of the " boys," gets broken or becomes the breeding-pen 

 of disease germs. So that it is not only useless, but also 

 dangerous and therefore ought to be abolished. 



Besides the many packages of trade goods, we had a large 

 amount of photographic material, including a dark tent and 

 five cameras. We took both plates and films, but the former 



