HORN EXPEDITION-ANTHROPOLOGY. 
135 
The prime factor in the liealing of these ulcers is unfloubtedly protection from 
tlie sun and flies. On this Expedition .several of our numbers sullcred considerable 
inconvenience through insullicient attention to these precautions which, indeed, 
are not always easy to carry out on such a journey. As a local application, our 
experience was that unguents of carbolic acid were not satisfactory and iodoform 
only moderately so, while under boracic acid ointment the sores healed with 
great rapidity even under the unavoidable stresses to which the hands were 
still continually subject. 
By bushmen the white viscid juice of Sarcostevnna Austrak is employed as a 
local application to these and oth-er sores on which it forms a sort of protective 
covering. I could not hear that any such use was made of the plant by the 
natives, though Mr. Eoelsche states that those around Port Darwin apply it in a 
similar way to the ulcers produced by the pustules of small-pox. 
The effect of the intense dryness of the climate is forcibly suggested by the 
peculiarly thin and desiccated aspect acquired by many l)ushmen after long 
residence in the interior. The skin of the face looks dry anrl harsh, and that of 
the nose appears tightly drawn across the bridge making this feature appear sharp 
and prominent. 
Beyond these “Barcoo” ulcers and, in one member, an attack of “sandy blight” 
(ophthalmia) which is a very prevalent complaint in these dry dusty regions, the 
health of the party was excellent throughout the journey. Indeed, it would be 
impossible to imagine life under healthier conditions—an incomparable winter 
climate, camping in the open air with the incentive to sleep of ample physical 
exercise, the never failing stimulus of now scenes and interests, and perhaps, also 
an at»stinence from all alcoholic drinks except, so long as the supply lasted, a 
mi.serable daily dose on retiring, distributed with measured accuracy by our elected 
custodian of the demijohn, which looked almost intinitesimal at the bottom of a 
pint pannikin. 
We suffered no hard.ships in the way of thirst, as tlie camels afforded us the 
means of carrying an ample supply of drinking water for our own use in districts 
where the natural supplies were uncertain or unknown, but, after such copious 
rains as had preceded our visit, it was not often that we were disappointed 
in this respect. To the fastidious, however, the water occasionally met 
with would have been objectionable, contaminated as it often obviou.sly was by 
