266 OF VARIOUS REMEDIES. 



thumb of the operator is then placed upon the 

 frontal vein of the forehead, which becoming 

 turgid, is laid open by a jerking cut with the 

 razor, and the blood flows freely. Cupping with 

 the assistance of a cow's horn, as I have before been 

 describing, I have also seen practised in exactly 

 the same manner, by the negroes of the western 

 coast of Africa, so that this method of abstracting 

 blood appears to be very general, and strongly 

 attests a previous civilized condition among the 

 ancestors of the inhabitants of this continent, as 

 such a practice argues a greater advance in intel- 

 lectual acquirement for its first introduction into 

 use, than we are willing, ignorant as we are 

 yet of what civilization exists in the unknown 

 countries of intertropical Africa, to accord to the 

 ignorant natives, with whom we are at present 

 acquainted. 



I must not omit to observe, that among other 

 external remedies, counter-irritation is a very 

 favourite practice among the Abyssinians. Thus, 

 in inflammations of the lungs, several small burns 

 are made upon the chest, either with a red-hot 

 iron rod, or a piece of burning charcoal, and 

 this remedial process appears, and, I dare say, 

 deservedly, to rank high as being very efficacious 

 in the opinion of the inhabitants. In rheumatism, 

 also, this kind of treatment, and the disease, is so 

 common on the high table land of Shoa, that an 

 exhibition of joints, to intimate how the patients 



