376 
MISSION TO ASHANTEE. 
Gonorrhoea is of rare occurrence, two cases came under my 
care, the patients had never used injections, they drank decoc- 
tions of leaves and bark, but could not tell me the plants they 
used ; one of the ingredients, was a small plant call Cutturasuh, of 
a purgative nature. The disease is allowed to take its course by 
the natives, as they are unacquainted with any method to stop it. 
Tinea Capitis, the scald head, is a common disease with the 
poorer sort of Ashantees and slaves, arising from their neglect of 
cleanliness; the applications which they use to cure it have seldom 
the desired effect. They apply plaisters of pounded leaves and 
charcoal, but do not wash the head. In one case, where a boy 
was placed under my care, he got well in eight days, by having 
his head very well washed with a brush, soap, and warm waters- 
then a strong infusion of tobacco, applied with a sponge, and 
when the head was dry, a composition of resinous and mercurial 
ointment was rubbed on it. 
Hydrocele occasionally occurs; they attempt to cure it by 
frictions of the castor oil nut, burnt and bruised with Mallaguetta 
pepper, but without any benefit. I drew off the water from one 
hydrocele, but, from our want of stimulants, could not perform 
any radical cure. Their applications to Inguinal hernia are 
equally ineffectual. They never attempt the reduction of umbi- 
lical hernia, although some are very large, and the disease very 
frequent. 
When a fracture of the leg or arm happens, the part is rubbed 
with a soft species of grass and palm oil, and the limb bound up 
with splints. " If God does not take the patient he recovers in 
four months,'" as they say. 
I have not seen a single instance of fracture in the Ashantee 
country. Gun-shot wounds of the extremities, when the bone is 
fractured, are generally fatal, or, where a large blood vessel is 
