Distribution of Tropical Diseases in Africa. 461 
unimportant place in the medicinal lore of Africa. At least 
one of their poisons—strophanthus—is now a well-recognised 
medicine for heart disease, which has been adopted all over 
the civilised world. 
What medical and surgical knowledge the natives possess 
is, as has been indicated, bound up with witchcraft, and the 
knowledge is usually handed down in families; or in some 
cases, as for instance in regard to poisons, it is regarded as a 
tribal secret, and the method of preparation of poisons and 
their antidotes is only communicated to such as, after initia- 
tion, have proved themselves worthy to be the recipients of 
that knowledge. 
Such then in brief is the character of the native methods 
of treating disease. It now remains for me to indicate what 
light European medicine throws upon the treatment of 
disease in Africa, and how far modern medicine can either 
prevent, diminish, or cure the numerous maladies to which 
white races, as has been seen, are liable when transplanted 
to this foreign soil. 
Certain characteristics should be possessed by individuals 
who leave a temperate climate to reside in Tropical Africa. 
First with regard to temperament. As was pointed out by 
Dr Moore, the sanguine temperament is associated with a 
tendency to congestive affections, to a rapid and irregular 
development of disease, to head affections, abscess of the 
liver, and scurvy. 
Persons possessing this temperament are characterised by 
active muscular systems, and high animal courage, but they 
live at high pressure, and cannot sustain slight exposure to 
noxious surrounding influences. The nervous temperament 
is very sensitive, but there is much energy and capacity for 
endurance of fatigue, privation, and exposure; persons, how- 
ever, possessing this nervous temperament, are prone to 
diseases of the nervous system and hepatic affections. With 
regard to the bilious temperament, the frame is powerful and 
the person possesses great endurance. He has the least 
sensibility of all to morbid disturbances and external impres- 
sions. He has no extraordinary tendency to liver affections, 
