'7?5< very well, and had feen the bark of it ufed by many of his countrymen with equal fuccefs ; but that fince his arrival in Africa, he had looked for it in vain. The chriftians; who arm the natives of Madagafcar againft each other, in order, by bartering afterwards with the conquerors, to recruit their colonies with droyes of wretched ilaves, muft here give me leave to remind them, i f not fwayed by the confideration of the advantages which may accrue to mankind, yet at leaft for the fake of their own interefts, a motive in other refpe&s fo powerful with them, in fome meafure to turn their thoughts, and allot a fmall part of their gains, to the purpofe of making ufeful refearches. The Peruvian bark, fenega, ophiorhiza, farfaparilla, quaffia, with many other ufeful remedies, calculated for preferving millions of our fpecies, have not we learned them all from thofe we call favages ? and perhaps might learn ftill more, i f our tyranny had not already, I had almoft faid, entirely extirpated them, and together with them the fruits of their ufeful experience. The operation of the bath, and the cures that are here performed by its means, depend, in my opinion, very little on the mineral that is contained in a ftate of folution in the water; for to do any good in this way, it is forced out too fpeedily, and by too near paffages. The warmth itfelf, in the degree in which it exifts here, hinders the iron from aCting as a tonic; and likewife prevents any of the water, by which the body is furrounded, from being abforbed into the veffels, and diluting the humours, 8cc. as thefe latter evidently flow towards the furface of the body; fo that the cures performed here, proceed from nothing elfe x than than repeated mutations o f the humours by fweating, and U7s- therefore a more fuitable diet and courfe of medicine than are here obferved are of the utmoft importance, to the end that the newly-generated fluids may be more healthy than thofe that have been previoufly carried off by the pores o f the {kin. But i f it be true, that the cures made by this bath chiefly depend on the operation o f fweating, in this cafe it has no peculiar advantage over domeftic baths, befides that o f laving fuel. In Africa and Europe, as well as among the favages in America, it is by no means unknown, that the methods of cure by exciting perfpira- tion in different ways, have in certain cafes been o f the greateft fervice ; but perhaps, in many inftances, more benefit would be found by making ufe of the natural baths at the Cape with a more moderate degree of warmth, which would allow o f the water being abforbed into the body; and likewife by uiing them with the addition of herbs : as, for example, of bucku {diofmd) and wild dacka (phlomis leonurus) which are known both by the colonifts and the Hottentots to be as efficacious as they are common, and of the powerful effects of which in pains and contractions of the limbs, when ufed in the form o f baths, I. myfelf have feen inftances. But finally, fuppofing the folutions of minerals in the warm fprihgs to be poffefled of the greateft powers, either univerfally, or only in particular circumftances, even then in default - of natural baths, one may prepare fomething fimilar to them one’s felf. Vide J ohi C aroli Schroteri Difputatio fub prcejidio F r id. Hof fmani de Balneorum artificialium, ex. Scoriis Metallicis ufu .Medico. Halce Magdeburgi 17 7a . Vo l . I. • U Like
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