482 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
of treating it in Africa with large doses of ipecacuanha 
This I consider the only treatment of any practical value. 
After sending the patient to bed, a mustard plaister should 
be applied to the epigastrium, and 30 drops of laudanum 
given at once. After half an hour 30 or 40 grs. of powdered 
ipecacuanha should be given, in as small a quantity of fluid 
as possible. A similar dose may be repeated in twelve or 
twenty-four hours if necessary; after this, during the suc- 
ceeding days, the dose should be gradually lessened to 10 or 
15 ers. a day, until the patient has perfectly recovered. In 
very severe attacks, as much as 2 drs. of the powder have 
been given without producing vomiting. Fairly large doses 
of quinine are required in all cases of malarial dysentery. 
In the treatment of the scorbutic form of dysentery, lime 
juice, fruit, and vegetables should be given, with as much 
animal food as the stomach will bear. In treating natives 
in Africa, the great difficulty is to ensure proper diet, for, 
unless the patient is carefully watched during convalescence, 
a relapse will follow the least indiscretion. A sea voyage is 
beneficial when a patient is convalescent, but it is not to be 
recommended during the continuance of the attack. 
Malaria. 
There are few regions in Africa where malaria is not a 
scourge, and those few have been indicated in my survey of 
the various African regions. 
I may say at the outset that I believe malaria to be 
produced by the hematozoon discovered by Laveran. His 
researches have been confirmed by observers in Europe, India, 
America,and Africa. The life-history of the hematozoon we 
do not know, and therefore we can only state that it requires a 
mean annual temperature of 40° F., and considerable moisture; 
also, other things being equal, the greater amount of organic 
matter in the soil, the more virulent will the production of 
the disease be. 
Of the various types of malarial fever, the intermittent 
is the most widely distributed, the remittent and pernicious 
fevers only being met-with in comparatively limited areas, 
