by spreading branches of the nauclea orientalis upon hot wood embers, and laying the patient upon them, wrapped up in a large cotton cloth.  Water is then sprinkled upon the branches, which, descending to the hot embers, soon covers the patient with a cloud of vapour, in which he is allowed to remain until the embers are almost extinguished.  This practice commonly produces a profuse perspiration, and wonderfully relieves the sufferer.

For the dysentery they use the bark of different trees reduced to powder and mixed with the patient’s food; but this practice is in general very unsuccessful.

The other diseases which prevail among the negroes are the yaws, the elephantiasis, and a leprosy of the very worst kind.  This last-mentioned complaint appears at the beginning in scurfy spots upon different parts of the body, which finally settle upon the hands or feet, where the skin becomes withered, and, cracks in many places.  At length the ends of the fingers swell and ulcerate, the discharge is acrid and fetid, the nails drop off, and the bones of the fingers become carious, and separate at the joints.  In this manner the disease continues to spread, frequently until the patient loses all his fingers and toes.  Even the hands and feet are sometimes destroyed by this inveterate malady, to which the negroes give the name of balla ou (incurable).

The guinea worm is likewise very common in certain places, especially at the commencement of the rainy season.  The negroes attribute this disease, which has been described by many writers, to bad water, and allege that the people who drink from wells are more subject to it than those who drink from streams.  To the same cause they attribute the swelling of the glands of the neck (goitres), which are very common in some parts of Bambarra.  I observed also, in the interior countries, a few instances of simple gonorrhoea, but never the confirmed lues.  On the whole, it appeared to me that the negroes are better surgeons than physicians.  I found them very successful in their management of fractures and dislocations, and their splints and bandages are simple and easily removed.  The patient is laid upon a soft mat, and the fractured limb is frequently bathed with cold water.  All abscesses they open with the actual cautery, and the dressings are composed of either soft leaves, shea butter, or cow’s dung, as the case seems in their judgment to require.  Towards the coast, where a supply of European lancets can be procured, they sometimes perform phlebotomy, and in cases of local inflammation a curious sort of cupping is practised.  This operation is performed by making incisions in the part, and applying to it a bullock’s horn with a small hole in the end.  The operator then takes a piece of bee’s wax in his mouth, and, putting his lips to the hole, extracts the air from the horn, and by a dexterous use of his tongue stops up the hole with the wax.  This method is found to answer the purpose, and in general produces a plentiful discharge.