CINCHONA AND OTHER MEDICINES. 607 



providential arrangement, that the remedy for fever should 

 be found in the greatest abundance where it is most 

 needed. On seeing the leaves, I stated that it was not 

 the Cinchona longifolia, from which it is supposed the 

 quinine of commerce is extracted, but the name and 

 properties of this bark made me imagine that it was a 

 cinchonaceous tree. I could not get the flower, but 

 when I went to vSenna I tried to bring away a few small 

 living trees with earth in a box. They, however, all died 

 when we came to Kilimane. Failing in this mode of testing; 

 the point, I submitted a few leaves and seed-vessels to> 

 my friend, Dr. Hooker, who kindly informs me that they 

 belong " apparently to an apocyneous plant, very nearly- 

 allied to the Malouetia Heudlotii (of Decaisne), a native 

 of Senegambia." Dr. H. adds, " Various plants of this 

 natural order are reputed powerful febrifuges, and some 

 of them are said to equal the cinchona in their effects.' * 

 It is called in the native tongue Kumbanzo. 



The flowers are reported to be white. The pods are in 

 pairs, a foot or fifteen inches in length, and contain a groove 

 on their inner sides. The thick, soft bark of the root is 

 the part used by the natives ; the Portuguese use that of 

 the tree itself. I immediately began to use a decoction of 

 the bark of the root, and my men found it so efficacious,, 

 that they collected small quantities of it for themselves,, 

 and kept it in little bags for future use. Some of them 

 said that they knew it in their own country, but I never 

 happened to observe it. The decoction is given after the 

 first paroxysm of the complaint is over. The Portuguese 

 believe it to have the same effects as the quinine, and 

 it may prove a substitute for that invaluable medicine. 



There are numbers of other medicines in use among^ 

 the natives, but I have always been obliged to regret 

 want of time to ascertain which were useful, and which 

 of no value. We find a medicine in use by a tribe mi 

 one part of the country, and the 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 



