132 CHILD MEDICINE. Chap. VI. 



A woman came a distance of one hundred miles for relief in 

 a complaint which seemed to have baffled the native doctors ; 

 a complete cure was the result. Some twelve months after 

 she returned to her husband, she bore a son. Her husband 

 having previously reproached her for being barren, she sent me a 

 handsome present, and proclaimed all over the country that I 

 possessed a medicine for the cure of sterility. The consequence 

 was, that I was teased with applications from husbands and 

 wives from all parts of the country. Some came upwards of two 

 hundred miles to purchase the great boon, and it was in vain for 

 me to explain that I had only cured the disease of the other 

 case. The more I denied, the higher then* offers rose ; they 

 would give any money for the " child medicine ;" and it was 

 really heart-rending to hear the earnest entreaty, and see the 

 tearful eye, which spoke the intense desire for offspring : "I am 

 getting old, you see grey hairs here and there on my head, and 

 I have no cliild ; you know how Bechuana husbands cast their 

 old wives away ; what can I do ? I have no cliild to bring water 

 to me when I am sick," &c. 



The whole of the country adjacent to the Desert, from Kuru- 

 man to Kolobeng, or Litubaruba, and beyond up to the latitude 

 of Lake Ngami, is remarkable for its great salubrity of climate. 

 Not only the natives, but Europeans whose constitutions have 

 been impaired by an Indian climate, find the tract of country 

 indicated both healthy and restorative. The health and longevity 

 of the missionaries have always been fan, though mission-work 

 is not very conducive to either elsewhere. Cases have been 

 known in which patients have come from the coast with com- 

 plaints closely resembling, if they were not actually, those of con- 

 sumption ; and they have recovered by the influence of the 

 climate alone. It must always be borne in mind that the climate 

 near the coast, from which we received such very favourable 

 reports of the health of the British troops, is actually inferior for 

 persons suffering from pulmonary complaints to that of any part 

 not subjected to the influence of sea-air. I have never seen the 

 beneficial effects of the inland climate on persons of shattered 

 constitutions, nor heard then high praises of the benefit they have 

 derived from travelling, without wishing that its bracing effects 

 should become more extensively known in England. No one 



