I Could Not Get The Flower,
But When I Went To Senna I Tried To Bring Away A Few Small Living Trees
With Earth In A Box.
They, however, all died when we came to Kilimane.
Failing in this mode of testing the point, I submitted
A few leaves and seed-vessels to my friend, Dr. Hooker,
who kindly informs me that they belong "apparently to an apocyneous plant,
very nearly allied to the Malouetia Heudlotii (of Decaisne),
a native of Senegambia." Dr. H. adds, "Various plants of this natural order
are reputed powerful febrifuges, and some of them are said to equal
the cinchona in their effects." It is called in the native tongue Kumbanzo.
The flowers are reported to be white. The pods are in pairs,
a foot or fifteen inches in length, and contain a groove on their inner sides.
The thick soft bark of the root is the part used by the natives;
the Portuguese use that of the tree itself. I immediately began
to use a decoction of the bark of the root, and my men found it so efficacious
that they collected small quantities of it for themselves,
and kept it in little bags for future use. Some of them said
that they knew it in their own country, but I never happened to observe it.
The decoction is given after the first paroxysm of the complaint is over.
The Portuguese believe it to have the same effects as the quinine,
and it may prove a substitute for that invaluable medicine.
There are numbers of other medicines in use among the natives,
but I have always been obliged to regret want of time to ascertain
which were useful and which of no value. We find a medicine in use
by a tribe in one part of the country, and the same plant employed
by a tribe a thousand miles distant. This surely must arise
from some inherent virtue in the plant. The Boers under Potgeiter
visited Delgoa Bay for the first time about ten years ago,
in order to secure a port on the east coast for their republic.
They had come from a part of the interior where the disease called croup
occasionally prevails. There was no appearance of the disease among them
at the period of their visit, but the Portuguese inhabitants of that bay
found that they had left it among them, and several adults were cut off
by a form of the complaint called `Laryngismus stridulus',
the disease of which the great Washington died. Similar cases have occurred
in the South Sea Islands. Ships have left diseases from which
no one on board was suffering at the time of their visit.
Many of the inhabitants here were cut down, usually in three days
from their first attack, until a native doctor adopted the plan
of scratching the root of the tongue freely with a certain root,
and giving a piece of it to be chewed. The cure may have been effected
by the scarification only, but the Portuguese have the strongest faith
in the virtues of the root, and always keep some of it within reach.
There are also other plants which the natives use in the treatment of fever,
and some of them produce `diaphoresis' in a short space of time.
It is certain that we have got the knowledge of the most potent febrifuge
in our pharmacopoeia from the natives of another country.
We have no cure for cholera and some other diseases. It might be worth
the investigation of those who visit Africa to try and find other remedies
in a somewhat similar way to that in which we found the quinine.*
-
* I add the native names of a few of their remedies in order to assist
the inquirer: Mupanda panda: this is used in fever
for producing perspiration; the leaves are named Chirussa;
the roots dye red, and are very astringent. Goho or Go-o:
this is the ordeal medicine; it is both purgative and emetic.
Mutuva or Mutumbue: this plant contains so much oil
that it serves as lights in Londa; it is an emollient drink
for the cure of coughs, and the pounded leaves answer as soap
to wash the head. Nyamucu ucu has a curious softening effect
on old dry grain. Mussakasi is believed to remove the effects of the Go-o.
Mudama is a stringent vermifuge. Mapubuza dyes a red color.
Musikizi yields an oil. Shinkondo: a virulent poison;
the Maravi use it in their ordeal, and it is very fatal.
Kanunka utare is said to expel serpents and rats by its pungent smell,
which is not at all disagreeable to man; this is probably
a kind of `Zanthoxylon', perhaps the Z. melancantha of Western Africa,
as it is used to expel rats and serpents there. Mussonzoa dyes cloth black.
Mussio: the beans of this also dye black. Kangome, with flowers and fruit
like Mocha coffee; the leaves are much like those of the sloe,
and the seeds are used as coffee or eaten as beans.
Kanembe-embe: the pounded leaves used as an extemporaneous glue
for mending broken vessels. Katunguru is used for killing fish.
Mutavea Nyerere: an active caustic. Mudiacoro: also an external caustic,
and used internally. Kapande: another ordeal plant, but used
to produce `diaphoresis'. Karumgasura: also diaphoretic.
Munyazi yields an oil, and is one of the ingredients for curing
the wounds of poisoned arrows. Uombue: a large root employed
in killing fish. Kakumate: used in intermittents. Musheteko:
applied to ulcers, and the infusion also internally in amenorrhoea.
Inyakanyanya: this is seen in small, dark-colored,
crooked roots of pleasant aromatic smell and slightly bitter taste,
and is highly extolled in the treatment of fever; it is found in Manica.
Eskinencia: used in croup and sore-throat. Itaca or Itaka:
for diaphoresis in fever; this root is brought as an article of barter
by the Arabs to Kilimane; the natives purchase it eagerly.
Mukundukundu: a decoction used as a febrifuge in the same way as quinine;
it grows plentifully at Shupanga, and the wood is used as masts
for launches.
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