Chap. XXXI. NATIVE MEDICINES. 649 



same plant employed by a tribe a thousand miles distant. This 

 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 appearance of the disease amongst 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 then 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 scratching 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 winch 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 

 inquirer : — 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 hoth purgative and emetic. 

 Mutuva or Mutumhue : 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 soften- 

 ing effect on old dry grain. Mussakasi is believed to remove the effects 

 of the Goo. Mudama is a stringent vermifuge. Mapubuza dyes a red colour. 

 Musikizi yields an oil. Shinkondo : 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. mclancantha of Western 



