' 775- confidence, as I had juft before made two. female Malabar N o vem b e r . ^ ilaves belonging to a neighbour of his, find their legs again, who, out of mere idlenefs, had kept their beds for feveral days under pretence of illnefs. Three {laves of the fame nation, likewife belonging to this neighbour of his, alfo recovered by my affiftance from a bilious fever; one of them, who had but juft before fallen ill, was cured by a ftrong decoition of tobacco, the only emetic I juft then had at hand. She bore, however, feveral tea-cups full of. this diigufting liquor before it operated. The other two,, who had lain above twelve days, at laft got over, the diforder by an alteration in their diet; but two other ilaves, who were likewife Malabars, had juft before died here of the fame fever. A violent bleeding at the nofe Was faid to have fupervened a ihort time before death, and immediately after it the gall gufhed out in great quantities through their nof-t trils; a circumftance, to which the afliftants, very injudicir ouily keeping the freili air from them with the greateft care, by covering them up with the bed-clothes and {hutting the doors quite clofe, did not a little contribute. With the Chriftians the diforder was at the height on the third day, but with the ilaves and Hottentots on the fifth or feventh. I obferved that the Hottentots complained much of a pain in their heads and necks, and fometimes in their ihoulders. This pain vanifhed and moved downwards into their arms and legs, (fo that they were not able to ftand) as foon as the diforder changed for the better, which moftly happened after the adminiftration o f emetics. In a Chriftian girl the crifis came on with violent pains in the feet. The The pulfe was, it muft be owned, tolerably high ; thofe N W f that tried venefedtion, however, obtained no relief from it, w o and were, notwithftanding, troubled with a bleeding at the nofe in the courfe of the diforder. The whites o f the eyes remained yellow a long while, excepting in fuch as had vomited fufficiently, and by that means a metaftalis o f the pains was made from the neck to the legs and feet. The fick Hottentots belonging to my laft hoft J a c o b K o k , who had been juft captured, and, by palling into his fervice, had made too fudden a tranfition from their favage manner of living, bore very dangerous dofes before they could be made to vomit. For this purpofe, befides the tobacco, I made ufe o f vinum emeticum, feu aqua benedicla rulandi, which I prepared according to the Difpenfary o f the London college for 1762, viz. two ounces of croc, antim. lot. in a bottle o f common Cape wine. . Though fixty drops o f this was fufficient to caufe a pretty violent vomiting in a Hottentot girl of fifteen years o f age, brought up from her infancy among the Chriftians, and likewife in feveral adults, that made ufe of it at the Cape, yet four ounces had not the leaft effedt on three Hottentot girls of about the fame age, whom I had under m y care all at onetime; I was obliged, therefore, to force them to fwallow pieces o f ihag tobacco in fubftance,andto drink feveral bafons o f the tobacco decodtion, before I could bring them to vomit. To two {lender and diminutive youths, who were newly captured, I gave, by degrees, feveral fpoonfuls o f the aqua benedicla above-mentioned, till each of them had taken about two ounces o f it, after which it began to operate. A youth of about twenty years of age, who had been very V o l . I. Z z lately
27f 72-1
To see the actual publication please follow the link above