1811. 
POWER OF CLEANLINESS.— THE MAN AND THE LOG. 
489 
to keep the wheels and various parts of the waggons covered with 
tar ; a work which had been completed only the day before. It would 
be difficult for a person, accustomed only to the air of England, to 
conceive a just idea of the excessive dryness of the atmosphere thus 
far in the interior of the most arid continent of the globe. The 
effects of it were visible in every thing around us : the dry grass 
crackled under our feet ; and even my finger-nails were at such 
times rendered exceedingly brittle. In many cases this state of the 
air had its advantages ; and in one, it was particularly useful : in the 
drying of my plants. But here it rather exceeeded my wishes, and 
caused my specimens sometimes to be so brittle, that they required 
the greatest care in handling. 
8;f^. I was requested to visit one of the huts of the village, to 
see an infant whose foot had been scalded in our journey from the 
Cape. From bad management, it was now in a deplorable state ; much 
swelled, and covered up with dirt and grease. It had already lost its 
great toe, and it appeared as if the rest would soon share the same 
fate. From io-norance or carelessness, the wound had been much 
neglected, though the mother seemed naturally distressed at the 
child's situation ; but she, like many others, imagined that any thing 
in the shape of medicine would effect the cure, without the necessity 
for thought or common sense. The missionaries had supplied her 
with a plaster, to which her neglect had added filth and dirt. Wher- 
ever I was called upon to act the part of a medical adviser, I 
never failed strongly to preach to these poor creatures the doctrine 
of cleanliness ; and this, in fact, was the whole of my advice in the 
present case : merely recommending her to leave off all the grease, 
and wash it with a decoction of Artemisia afra. The consequence 
was, that in a fortnight afterwards the foot began to heal. 
9th. Excepting in the missionaries' garden, there was but one 
tree * in the whole village ; and that one was sufficiently thriving and 
ornamental to have encouraged any but the indolent Hottentot to 
* This may be seen in the eighth plate, just above the waggon and oxen. 
3 R 
