480 
MANAGEMENT OF THE CURE. 
22, 23 Nov. 
in brandy ; which, being not unpleasant to the palate of a Hottentot, 
disappeared much faster than could be accounted for by the wants of 
my patient. With this the wound was washed night and morning, 
for the first ten days, and occasionally for a fortnight afterwards. 
But as soon as it began to heal, I employed a wash made of a strong 
decoction of the leaves of Wilde-alsem (Wild Wormwood.) * 
The fore-arm, and the remaining part of the hand, rested in 
a splint supported by a sling from the neck. He had very little 
fever ; and the wound in a few days began to assume a healing 
appearance. The fungous flesh, which was beginning to form on the 
fourth day, was reduced by frequently powdering it with burnt alum. 
A deep wound near the wrist-bone continued for five weeks to cleanse 
itself, but would have closed much sooner, if I had not judged it 
prudent to keep it open. A healing plaster was made by melting 
together a wax-candle with a quantity of sheep's tallow, sufficient to 
give it the proper softness. There appeared no necessity for opiates 
after the fourth night, when the dose of laudanum had been gradually 
lessened to ten drops. All food of a heating quality was denied him ; 
and it was, with much reluctance, that he submitted for three weeks 
to the privation of his usual rations of brandy. On the sixth day he 
was allowed a small quantity of vinegar with his food, and his diet was 
then changed to one of a more solid kind: it had previously consisted 
only of mutton broth, rice, and bread, with either sweet, or sour, 
milk. Till the twelfth day he was confined to the hut ; but after- 
wards frequently took a walk from the village to the waggons, 
remaining with us till the sun began to decline. In the progress of 
the cure, constant attention was paid to keeping the wound clean, 
and protecting it from the air : to these, and the regulation of his 
diet, the successful result of our nursing, is to be attributed ; unless 
perhaps, a dulness of nerve, and a tardy circulation of blood, may 
not greatly have assisted the remedies. He was never deprived of 
the consolation of his tobacco-pipe, which, besides its powers as an 
* Artemisia Afra. 
