126 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I. 



The great vital energy of savage, compared with civilized, 

 nations, is shown by the relatively greater healing power of 

 nature (vis medicatrix naturae) possessed by the former. The 

 experiments made in this respect extend to all races. Leigh 1 

 relates the case of an Australian whose temporal bone had been 

 fractured by a blow, and the temporal artery divided, and of 

 another whose ulna and radius had been fractured in a terrible 

 manner, that the first took part on the following day in some 

 public meeting, and that, though worms appeared in the arm 

 of the second, the recovery in both took place without any 

 operation or even dressing. Similar cases are to be found in 

 Barrington 3 and Dawson. 3 Though but one in four recover 

 from the operations of the extirpation of the penis and the 

 testicles, which are performed on Negroes by the slavedealers 

 in East Sudan, 4 many examples prove that nature's healing 

 power is as great here as among other Negroes. This extends 

 also to the white races living in Africa, although Russegger 5 

 points out that in the hot climate of tropical Africa, wounds heal 

 very slowly in the European, especially during the rainy period. 

 Others however maintain that in the tropics, e. g. at Trinidad, 

 wounds heal rapidly even in Europeans. 6 W. Earl 7 ascribes 

 the natural healing power among the Malays to their vegetable 

 diet, which prevents violent inflammation. Petit 8 reports a 

 series of his own observations in Abyssinia, that those who are 

 punished by having hands or feet cut off, as well as the chil- 

 dren or adults who are emasculated or have the whole ge- 

 nitals extirpated, do not generally die from the operation, 

 although the wounds are entirely left to the healing power of 

 nature. Parkyns 9 relates similar instances. To the Moors, 

 Chenier 10 ascribes that great innate healing power and insen- 



1 " Reconnoitering Voy. in S. Austr.," p. 173, 1839. 



2 Hist, of N. S. Wales/' p. 250, 1810. 



3 " The present state of Austr.," p. 317, 1830. 



4 Brehm, i, p. 202. 



5 " E. in Eur., As., u. Afr.," ii, p. 2, 1843. 



6 Ausland, p. 576, 1858. 



7 " Eastern seas," p. 43. 



8 Lefebvre, " Voy. en Abyss.," iii, 369, 1845-. 



9 " Life in Abyss.," ii, p. 268, 1853. 



10 "Rech. hist, sur les Maures," iii, p. 205, 1787. 



