recovery, and divert his mind from brooding over his own danger--but
I have sometimes observed among them a more systematic mode of
treatment. On the first attack of a fever, when the patient
complains of cold, he is frequently placed in a sort of vapour-bath.
This is done 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,