218 
Transactions of the Boyal Society of South Africa. 
rationem per stercora." (I have been unable to find where he] said it.) I 
hope that some other observer may be able to find out why the natives only 
use the dejections of the hippopotamus. 
{d) Burns and scalds are treated by the external application of poultry- 
dung ; the white pieces are the best. It is interesting to note that 
van Andel (cited above) has (p. 395) the following quotation from the 
Wyse Jaerbeschryver (1663) : " Koedreck, met goet melck vermenght op 
een doeck gesmeert en daer (de brandwond) opgelegt, treckt de hitte 
geweldigh uit " (cow-dung, well mixed with milk, applied [to the burns] on 
a piece of cloth draws the heat out as by magic). Even at the present 
day faeces of all kinds of animals, and even of human beings, are being 
extensively used in the treatment of all kinds of wounds by the people in 
Europe ; and Cabancs and Barraud (Remcdes de bonne femme, Paris, 1907) 
prove by a quotation out of a Dictionnaire des sciences mcdicales (1812) 
that, in France at least, official medical science occasionally took refuge to 
it even then : "En quelques occasions on a cru applicjuer avec succes 
quelques excrements comme la fiente liumaine, celle de I'hirondelle, I'urine 
humaine, etc." For the present-day use of faeces in the medical folk-lore of 
the Boers in Transvaal I refer to my De Volksgeneeskunst in Transvaal, 
Leiden, 1919. 
(e) Eubbing the gums with a bug is thought to facilitate the teething 
of children. Eubbing the gums with saliva or human milk is practised all 
over Europe*; of what use the bug is supposed to be escapes me altogether. 
(/) Round the ankles of newly-born infants suffering from convulsions 
small pieces of cloth are tied, filled with a resinous substance, very much 
like asafoetida. It is difficult to grasp in what way an effect is expected. 
V. Andel, op. cit., p. 224, relates how in some parts of Holland a small pouch, 
filled with asafoetida, is worn on the chest to ward off attacks of asthma ; 
it is worth while to note that both convulsions and asthma come on and 
leave off suddenly. Y. Andel regards this pouch to be an " amulet " ; but 
as he omits to say what an "amulet" is supposed to be, and as works of 
reference do not bring us any further here, it is perhaps better to resign 
ourselves to our ignorance, at least for the present. It is interesting to note 
that, even at the present day, an alcoholic extract of asafoetida is being 
extensively prescribed for patients suffering from hysteria, so often compli- 
cated by sudden convulsions ; and while according to some its effect is only 
dependent on the " suggestive " action of its smell and taste, others, and 
amongst those no less an authority than Lauder Brunton, maintain that it 
has a powerful effect on muscles (comp. Pinkhof and van der Wielen, 
Vademecum Pharmacotherapeuticum, Amsterdam, 1917, p. 65). 
{g) In babies suffering from skin-rashes the treatment is not intended 
to make the rash disappear, but first of all to make it come out ; for a 
*' V. Andel, op. cit., p. 140. 
