694 NATIVE MEDICINES. 



same plant employed "by a tribe a thousand miles distant. Tins 

 surely must arise from some inherent virtue in the plant. The 

 Boers under Potgeiter visited Delgoa Bay for the first time about 

 ten years ago, in order to secure a port on the east coast for 

 their republic. They had come from a part of the interior where 

 the disease called croup occasionally prevails. There was no ap- 

 pearance of the disease among them at the period of their visit, 

 but the Portuguese inhabitants of that bay found that they had 

 left it among them, and several adults were cut off by a form 

 of the complaint called Laryngismus stridulus, the disease of 

 which the great Washington died. Similar cases have occurred 

 in the South Sea Islands. Ships have left diseases from which 

 no one on board was suffering at the time of their visit. Many 

 of the inhabitants here were cut down, usually in three days from 

 their first attack, until a native doctor adopted the plan of scratch- 

 ing the root of the tongue freely with a certain root, and giving 

 a piece of it to be chewed. The cure may have been effected 

 by the scarification only, but the Portuguese have the strongest 

 faith in the virtues of the root, and always keep some of it within 

 reach. 



There are also other plants which the natives use in the treat- 

 ment of fever, and some of them produce diaphoresis in a short 

 space of time. It is certain that we have got the knowledge of the 

 most potent febrifuge in our pharmacopoeia from the natives of 

 another country. We have no cure for cholera and some other 

 diseases. It might be worth the investigation of those who visit 

 Africa to try and find other remedies in a somewhat similar way 

 to that in which we found the quinine.* 



* I add the native names of a few of their remedies in order to assist the in- 

 quirer : Mupanda panda : this is used in fever for producing perspiration ; the leaves 

 are named Chirussa ; the roots dye red, and are very astringent. Goho or Goo : 

 this is the ordeal medicine ; it is both purgative and emetic. Mutuva or Mu- 

 tumhue : this plant contains so much oil that it serves as lights in Londa ; it is 

 an emollient drink for the cure of coughs, and the pounded leaves answer as 

 soap to wash the head. Nyamucu ucu has a curious softening effect on old dry 

 grain. Mussakasi is believed to remove the effects of the Goo. Mudama is a 

 stringent vermifuge. Mapnbuza dyes a red color. Musikizi yields an oil. Shin- 

 kondo : a virulent poison ; the Maravi use it in their ordeal, and it is very fatal. 

 Kanunka utare is said to expel serpents and rats by its pungent smell, which is not 

 at all disagreeable to man ; this is probably a kind of Zanthoxylon, perhaps the Z. 



