502 



APPENDIX III. 



Exclusive of fevers, dysentery, and their consequences, 

 such as dropsy, obstruction, &c., no other disease appeared 

 to be frequent except venereal, under which, in all its 

 stages and forms, a very great number of persons laboured. 

 Their fevers are often of the remittent form, but more 

 frequently of the intermittent kind ; and in addition to 

 the consequences already noticed to follow them, some- 

 times terminate in an unusual weakness and pains over 

 the body, particularly of the lower extremities, which 

 cause sometimes a total loss of power. ^ I am unable with 

 certainty to determine the cause of this ; perhaps it may 

 arise from their sleeping on wet or damp ground while 

 confined with these disorders. 



The small-pox, — that scourge of the human race, — 

 also often visits the natives of Zanzibar. We were told 

 that about two years ago it made dreadful ravages all 

 over the island : 15,000 (Note 27) are said to have perished 

 in the town alone. This intelligence led me to hope they 

 would receive with avidity any proposal to secure them 

 from the effects of so dreadful a visitation. Though the 

 vaccine matter brought from Bombay was now nearly eleven 

 weeks old, and I consequently had great doubts of its 

 power, I was resolved to let slip no opportunity of trying 

 to introduce it among them. I therefore proposed it to the 

 Hakim at our first interview, confident that it would be 

 eagerly solicited by those who had children and young 

 slaves belonging to them. In this, however, I was much 

 disappointed ; for though their interest and the safety of 

 their offspring were at stake, I had the mortification to 

 find their prejudices stronger than the sense of either, and 

 it was with the utmost difficulty I could procure leave to 

 ' This is the paralysis from which I suffered iu the African interior. 



