LUES. 



321 



sores tutiya or murtutu, blue-stone, is considered a 

 specific. 



As might be expected amongst an ignorant and de- 

 bauched race coming in direct contact with semi-civilisa- 

 tion, the lues has found its way from the island of Zan- 

 zibar to Ujiji and into the heart of Africa. It is uni- 

 versally believed both by the natives and by the Arabs, 

 who support the assertion with a host of proofs, to be 

 propagated without contact. Such, indeed, is the general 

 opinion of the Eastern world, where perhaps its greater 

 virulence may assimilate it to the type of the earlier at- 

 tacks in Europe. The disease, however, dies out, and 

 has not taken root in the people as amongst the devoted 

 races of North America and the South Sea islands. Al- 

 though a malignant form was found extending through- 

 out the country, mutilation of the features and similar 

 secondaries were not observed beyond the maritime 

 region. Except blue-stone, mineral drugs are unknown, 

 and the use of mercury and ptyalism have not yet exas- 

 perated the evil. The minor form of lues is little feared 

 and yields readily to simples ; the consequences, however, 

 are strangury, cystitis, chronic nephritic disease, and 

 rheumatism. 



" Polypharmacy " is not the fault of the profession in 

 East Africa, and the universal belief in possession tends 

 greatly to simplify the methodus modendi. The usual 

 cathartic is the bark of a tree called kalakala, which is 

 boiled in porridge. There is a great variety of emetics, 

 some so violent that several Arabs who have been bold 

 enough to swallow them, barely escaped with life. The 

 actual cautery — usually a favourite counter-irritant 

 amongst barbarous people — is rarely practised in East 

 Africa ; in its stead powder of blue-stone is applied to 

 the sore or wound, which has been carefully scraped, 



VOL. II. Y 



