228 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
by closing the apertures, and bandaging the parts, without 
attempting to extract the substance that may be lodged 
within. 
In setting fractures of the limbs, particularly of the arms, 
they were generally more successful than in other opera¬ 
tions. When the skull or the thigh was broken, which 
was occasionally the case in battle, the wounded were left 
to perish, without any attempt to preserve life; but in 
other cases the bones were drawn carefully together as near 
as possible in their original form; splints of bamboo were 
applied to the limb for the purpose of confining it in the 
proper position, and the whole carefully bandaged with 
native cloth. This method of treatment was often suc¬ 
cessful. 
Dislocations of the joints were occasionally reduced; and 
it is stated by the natives, that amputations have been suc¬ 
cessfully performed by the mpanao ody; no instances of 
the kind, however, have come under the notice of the 
Missionaries. Tooth-ache is of frequent occurrence, for 
which all the native remedies were generally ineffectual; 
but after an instrument had been made by Mr. Chick, the 
smith connected with the Mission, many were relieved by 
•the removal of the diseased tooth. 
In general, the natives manifest great aversion to bleeding, 
although not unacquainted with the beneficial effects by 
which it has been followed; and occasionally they have re¬ 
course to a rude sort of cupping process, which they effect by 
placing the wide aperture of the end of a horn on the part 
affected, and then drawing out the air with the mouth 
through a small perforation at the point of the horn; and, 
having by this simple means raised the skin, they remove 
the horn, and puncture the skin in two or three places with 
the point of a knife, repeating the operation until a suffi- 
