Chap. VJ. OPHTHALMIA. 87 



to be interred. An anteater's hole is often selected, to save 

 the trotille of digging a grave. On two occasions while I was 

 there the buried men returned home to their affrighted relatives. 

 They had recovered while in their graves froin prolonged 

 swoons. 



In ophthalmia the doctors apply the pungent smoke of cer- 

 tain roots to the eyes, the patient at the same time taking 

 strong draughts of it up his nostrils. Two or three grains of 

 nitrate of silver dissolved in an ounce of rain-water answered 

 the end so much more effectually, that every morning the 

 people came in crowds for the remedy. This solution is a 

 good preventive of an acute attack if poured into the eyes as 

 soon as the pain begins, and might prove valuable for tra- 

 vellers. The native practitioners also cup on the temples for 

 the disorder. The skin is scarified, and the large end of a goat 

 or antelope horn placed over the cuts. The edges of the horn 

 are wetted with water to make it adhere more completely. At 

 the small end a little hole is pierced, through which the air is 

 sucked out till a vacuum is fonned. The hole is then stopped 

 up with wax, and the pressure of the atmosphere having been 

 removed from the blood it flows out into the horn. The opera- 

 tion is well performed, though the doctor cannot always resist 

 the temptation to join quackery with science, and occasionally 

 separates the fibrine from the blood in a basin of water by his 

 side, and pretends that he has extracted something pernicious 

 He thus explains the rationale of the cure, and the ocular de 

 monstration is convincing to the patient. 



Those doctors who have inherited their profession as an heir- 

 loom generally possess some valuable knowledge, the result of 

 long observation. The rest are usually quacks. With the 

 regular practitioners I always remained on the best terms, 

 and refrained from appearing to doubt their skill in the 

 presence of their patients. Any explanation in private was 

 thankfully received, and wrong treatment readily changed for 

 more rational methods. English drugs were eagerly accepted ; 

 and we always found medical knowledge an important aid in 

 convincing the people that we were anxious for their welfare. 



The surgical skill of the natives is at a low ebb. Kg 

 one ever attempted to remove a tumour except by external 

 application. A man had one on the nape of his neck as lar^ 



