Naturally, nations below the upper levels of culture have little or no

science to teach us, but many of their ideas are interesting as marking

stages in the history of the human mind. Thus, in the art of counting,

which is one of the foundations of science, it is common to find the

primitive method of counting by fingers and toes still in practical use,

while in many languages the numeral words have evidently grown up out

of such a state of things. Thus _lima_, the well-known Polynesian word

for five, meant “hand,” before it passed into a numeral. All devices for

counting are worth notice, from the African little sticks for units and

larger sticks for tens, up to the ball-frames with which the Chinese and

Russian traders reckon so rapidly and correctly. It is a sign of lowness

in a tribe not to use measures and weights, and where these appear in

a rough way, it is interesting to discover whether vague lengths, such

as finger, foot, pace, are used, or whether standard measures and

weights have come in. If so, these should be estimated according to

our standards with as much accuracy as possible, as it may thus become

possible to ascertain their history. In connection with this comes the

question of money, as to whether commerce is still in the rudimentary

stage of exchanging gifts, or has passed into regular barter, or risen to

regular trade, with some sort of money to represent value, even if the

circulating medium be only cowries, or bits of iron, or cakes of salt,

all which are current money to this day in parts of Africa. Outside the

present higher civilisation, more or less primitive ideas of astronomy

and geography will be found to prevail. Among tribes like the American

Indians the obvious view suggested by the senses still prevails, that

the earth is a flat round disc (or sometimes square, with four quarters

or winds) overarched by a solid dome or firmament, on which the sun and

moon travel—in inland countries going in and out at holes or doors on

the horizon, or, if the sea bounds the view, rising from and plunging

into its waves at sunrise and sunset. These early notions are to us

very instructive, as they enable us to realise the conceptions of the

universe which have come down to us in the ancient books of the world,

but which scientific education has uprooted from our own minds. With

these cosmic ideas are found among the lowest races the two natural

periods of time, namely, the lunar month and the solar year, determined

by recurring winters, summers, or rainy seasons. Such tribes divide the

day roughly by the sun’s height in the sky, but among peoples civilised

enough to have time-measures and the sun-dial, there is a tolerably

accurate knowledge of the sun’s place at the longest and shortest days,

and indeed, throughout the year. The astronomy of such countries as India

has been of course described by professional astronomers; but among ruder

nations there is still a great deal unrecorded—for instance, as to the

constellations into which they map out the heavens. This likening stars

and star-groups to animals and other objects is almost universal among

mankind. Savages like the Australians still make fanciful stories about

them, as that Castor and Pollux are two native hunters, who pursue the

kangaroo (Capella) and kill him at the beginning of the hot season. Such

stories enable us to understand the myths of the Classical Dictionary,

while modern astronomers keep up the old constellations as a convenient

mode of mapping out the sky. As to maps of the earth, even low tribes

have some notion of their principle, and can roughly draw the chart

of their own district, which they should be encouraged to do. Native

knowledge of natural history differs from much of their rude science in

its quality, often being of great positive value. The savage or barbarian

hunter knows the animals of his own region and their habits with

remarkable accuracy, and inherited experience has taught him that certain

plants have industrial and medicinal uses. Thus, in South America the

Europeans learnt the use of India-rubber or caoutchouc, which the native

tribes were accustomed to make into vessels and playing-balls, and of the

Peruvian bark or cinchona, which was already given to patients in fever.

Here a few words may be said of magic, which, though so utterly futile

in practice, is a sort of early and unsuccessful attempt at science. It

is easy, on looking into the proceedings of the magician, to see that

many of them are merely attempts to work by false analogy or deceptive

association of ideas. The attempt to hurt or kill a person by cutting

or piercing a rude picture or image representing him, which is met with

in all the four quarters of the globe, is a perfect example of the way

in which sorcerers mistake mere association of ideas for real cause

and effect. Examined from this point of view, it will be found that a

large proportion of the magic rites of the world will explain their own

meaning. It is true that this is not the only principle at work in the

magician’s mind; for instance, he seems to reason in a loose way that any

extraordinary thing will produce any extraordinary effect, so that the

peculiar stones and bits of wood which we should call curiosities become

to the African sorcerer powerful fetishes. It will often be noticed that

arts belonging to the systematic magic of the civilised world, which has

its source in Babylon and Egypt, have found their way into distant lands

more readily indeed than useful knowledge, so that they may even be met

with among barbaric tribes. Thus it has lately been pointed out that the

system of lucky and unlucky days, which led the natives in Madagascar to

kill many infants as of inauspicious birth, is adopted from Arabic magic,

and it is to be expected that many other magical arts, if their formulas

are accurately described, may in like manner be traced to their origin.

_Society._—One of the most interesting features of savage and barbaric

life is the existence of an unwritten code of moral conduct, by which

families and tribes are practically held together. There may be no

laws to punish crime, and the local religion may no more concern

itself directly with men’s behaviour to one another than it did in

the South Sea Islands. But among the roughest people there is family

affection, and some degree of mutual help and trust, without which,

indeed, it is obvious that society would break up, perhaps in general

slaughter. Considering the importance of this primitive morality in the

history of mankind, it is unfortunate that the attention of travellers

has been so little drawn to it, that our information is most meagre

as to how far family affection among rude tribes may be taken to be

instinctive, like that of the lower animals, or how far morality is

produced by public opinion favouring such conduct as is for the public

good, but blaming acts which do harm to the tribe. It is desirable to

inquire what conduct is sanctioned by custom among any people, whether,

for instance, infanticide is thought right or wrong, what freedom

of behaviour is approved in youths and girls, and so on. For though

breaches of custom may not be actually punishable, experience will soon

convince any explorer among any rude tribe that custom acts in regulating

their life even more strictly than among ourselves. The notion of even

savages leading a free and unrestrained life is contradicted by those

who know them best; in fact, they are bound in every act by ancestral

custom. While each tribe thus has its moral standard of right and wrong,

this differs much in different tribes, and one must become intimately

acquainted with any people to ascertain what are really their ruling

principles of life. Accounts have been often given of the natural virtue

and happiness of rude tribes, as in the forests of Guiana or the hills of

Bengal, where the simple native life is marked by truthfulness, honesty,

cheerfulness, and kindness, which contrast in a striking way with the

habits of low-class Europeans. There are few phenomena in the world more

instructive than morality thus existing in practical independence either

of law or religion. It may still be possible to observe it for a few

years before it is altered by contact with civilisation, which, whether

it raises or lowers on the whole the native level, must supersede in

great measure this simple family morality.

The unit of social life is the family, and the family is based on a

marriage-law. Travellers who have not looked carefully into the social

rules of tribes they were describing, or whose experience has been of

tribes in a state of decay, have sometimes reported that marriage hardly

existed. But this state of things is not confirmed as descriptive of any

healthy human society, however rude; in fact, the absence of definite

marriage appears incompatible with the continued existence of a tribe.

Therefore statements of this kind made by former visitors should be

carefully sifted, and marriage-laws in general deserve careful study.

The explorer will hardly meet with marriage at so low a stage that

the union can be described as little beyond annual pairing; but where

divorce is almost unrestricted, as in some African tribes, there is more

or less approach to this condition, which is possible, though unusual,

under such laws as that of Islam. Polygamy, which exists over a large

part of the globe, is a well-understood system, but information is less

complete as to the reasons which have here and there led to its opposite

polyandry, as among the Toda hill-tribes and the Nairs in South India.

Among customs deserving inquiry are match-making festivals at spring-tide

or harvest, when a great part of the year’s marriages are arranged. This

is not only often done among the lower races, but traces of it remain in

Greece, where the dances at Megara on Easter Tuesday are renowned for

wife-choosing, and till lately in Brittany, where on Michaelmas Day the

girls sate in a row decked in all their finery on the bridge of Penzé,

near Morlaix. The custom of bride-capture, where the bridegroom and his

friends make show of carrying off the bride by violence, is known in

Europe as a relic of antiquity, as in ancient Rome, Wales within the

last century or two, or Tyrol at the present day; but in more barbaric

regions, as on the Malay peninsula or among the Kalmuks of North Asia,

it may be often met with, practised as a ceremony, or even done in

earnest. On the other hand, restrictions on marriage between kinsfolk or

clansfolk are more prominent among the lower races than in the civilised

world, but their motive is even now imperfectly understood. Partly these

restrictions take the form we are accustomed to of prohibiting marriage

between relatives more or less near in our sense, but among nations

at a lower level they are apt to involve also what is called exogamy

or “marrying-out.” A tribe or people—for instance, the Kamilaroi of

Australia, or the Iroquois of North America—is divided into hereditary

clans, members of which may not marry in their own clan. In various parts

of the world these clans are named from some animal, plant, or other

object, and anthropologists often call such names “totems,” this word

being taken from the native name among Algonquin tribes of North America.

For an instance of the working of this custom among the Iroquois tribes

a Wolf was considered brother to a Wolf of any other tribe, and might

not marry a Wolf girl, who was considered as his sister, but he might

marry a Deer or a Heron. In contrast with such rules is the practice of

endogamy, or “marrying-in,” as among some Arab tribes, who habitually

marry cousins. But it will be found that the two rules often go together,

as where a Hindu must practically marry within his own caste, but at

the same time is prohibited from marrying in his own gotra or clan.

Researches into totem-laws are apt to bring the traveller into contact

with other relics of the ancient social institutions in which these laws

are rooted, especially the practice of reckoning descent not on the

father’s side, as with us, but on the mother’s side, after the manner of

the Lycians, whose custom seemed extraordinary to the Greeks in the time

of Herodotus, but may be still seen in existence among native tribes of

America or in the Malay islands. Even the system of relationship familiar

to Europeans is far different from those of regions where forms of the

“classificatory system” prevail, in which father’s brothers and mother’s

sisters are called fathers and mothers. In inquiring into native laws of

marriage and descent, precautions must be taken to ensure accuracy, and

especially such ambiguous English words as “uncle” or “cousin” should be

kept clear of.

Another point on which travellers have great opportunity of seeing with

their own eyes the working of primitive society is the holding and

inheritance of property, especially land. Notions derived from our modern

law of landlord and tenant give place in the traveller’s mind to older

conceptions, among which individual property in land is hardly found.

In rude society it is very generally the tribe which owns a district as

common land, where all may hunt and pasture and cut fire-wood; while,

when a family have built a hut, and tilled a patch of land round it, this

is held in common by the family while they live there, but falls back

into tribe-land if they cease to occupy it. This is further organised in

what are now often called “village communities,” which may be seen in

operation in Russia and India, where the village fields are portioned out

among the villagers. Those who have seen them can understand the many

traces in England of the former prevalence of this system in “common

fields,” etc. There is the more practical interest in studying the

working of this old-world system from the light it throws on projects of

communistic division of land, which in such villages may be studied, and

its merits and defects balanced. On the one hand it assures a maintenance

for all, while on the other it limits the population of a district, the

more so from the obstinate resistance which the counsel of “old men”

who manage a village always oppose to any improved method of tillage.

Not less perfectly do the tenures existing in many countries show the

various stages of landholding which arise out of military conquest. The

absolute ownership of all the land by a barbaric chief or king, which

may be seen in such a country as Dahome, whose subjects hold their lands

on royal sufferance, is an extreme case. In the East, feudal tenures of

land granted for military service still have much the same results as in

mediæval Europe.

At low levels of civilisation the first dawning of criminal law may be

seen in the rule of vengeance or retaliation. The person aggrieved, or

his kinsfolk if he has been killed, are at once judges and executioners,

and the vengeance they inflict stands in some reasonable relation to

the offence committed. Not only is such vengeance the great means of

keeping order among such rude tribes as the Australians, but even among

half-civilised nations like Abyssinians and Afghans the primitive law may

still be studied in force, carried out in strict legal order as a _lex

talionis_, not degraded to mere illegal survival in outlying districts

like the “vendetta” of modern Europe, carried on even now, in spite of

criminal jurisprudence, which for ages has striven to transfer punishment

from private hands to the State. Whether among savages, barbarians, or

the lower civilised nations, the traveller will find everywhere matter

of interesting observation in the law and its administration. The law

may be still in the state of unwritten custom, and the senate or council

of old men may be the judges, or the power at once of lawgiver and judge

may have passed into the hands of the chief, who, as among the modern

Kaffirs, may make a handsome revenue by the cattle given him as fees

by both sides, a fact interesting as illustrating the times when an

European judge took gifts as a matter of course. Among the nations at

higher levels of culture in the East, for instance, most of the stages

may still be seen through which the administration of law, criminal and

civil, was given over to a trained legal class. One important stage in

history is marked by religion taking to itself legal control over the

conduct of a nation. The working of this is seen among Oriental nations,

whether Mohammedan, Brahman, or Buddhist, whose codes of law are of an

ecclesiastical type, and the lawyers theologians. There is much to

be learnt from the manner in which such law is administered, and the

devices are interesting by which codes framed under past conditions of

society are practically accommodated to a new order of things, without

professedly violating laws held to be sacred, and therefore unchangeable.

Ordeals, which have now disappeared from legal procedure among European

nations, are often to be met with elsewhere. Thus in Arabia the ordeal by

touching or licking hot iron is still known (the latter is an easy and

harmless trick, if the iron is quite white-hot). In Burma, under native

rule, the ancient trial of witches by “swimming” went on till lately. In

many countries also symbolic oaths invoking evils on the perjurer are

to be met with, as when the Ostyaks in Siberia swear in court by laying

their hand on a bear’s head, meaning that a bear will kill them if they

lie. It shows the carelessness with which Europeans are apt to regard the

customs of other nations, that in English courts a Chinese is called upon

to swear by breaking a saucer, under the entirely erroneous belief that

this symbolic curse is a Chinese judicial oath.

The most undeveloped forms of government are only to be met with in a few

outlying regions, as among some of the lower Esquimaux or Rocky Mountain

tribes, where life goes on with hardly any rule beyond such control as

the strong man may have over his own household. Much oftener travellers

have opportunity of studying, in a more or less crude state, the types of

government which prevail in higher culture. It is of especial interest to

see men of the whole tribe gathered in assembly (the primitive _agora_)

to decide some question of war or migration. Not less instructive are

the proceedings of the council of old men (the primitive _senate_), who,

among American tribes or the hill tribes of India, transact the business

of the tribe; they are represented at a later social stage by the

village-elders of the Hindus or the Russians. Among the problems which

present themselves among nations below the civilised level is that of the

working of the patriarchal system, still prevailing among such tribes as

the Bedaween, while often the balance of power is seen adjusting itself

between the patriarchal heads of families and the leaders who obtain

authority by success in war. The struggle between the hereditary chief

or king and the military despot, who not only usurps his place but seeks

to establish hereditary monarchy in his own line, is one met with from

low to high levels of national life. The traveller’s attention may be

called to the social forces which do their work independently of men in

authority, and make society possible, even when there is little visible

authority at all. The machinery of government described in books is often

much less really powerful than public opinion, which controls men’s

conduct in ways which are so much less conspicuous that they have hardly

yet been investigated with the care they deserve.

_Religion and Mythology._—While great religions, like Mohammedanism and

Buddhism, have been so carefully examined that European students often

know more about their sacred books than the believers themselves, yet the

general investigation of the religions of the world is very imperfect,

and every effort should be made to save the details from being lost

as one tribe after another disappears, or passes into a new belief.

Missionaries have done much in recording particulars of native religions,

and some have had the skill to describe them scientifically; but the

point of view of the missionary engaged in conversion to another faith

is unfavourable for seeing the reasons of the beliefs and practices he

is striving to upset. The object of the anthropologist is neither to

attack nor defend the doctrines of the religion he is examining, but to

trace their rational origin and development. It is not only among the

rudest tribes that religious ideas which seem of a primitive order may be

met with, but these hold their place also among the higher nations who

profess a “book-religion.” Thus the English or German peasant retains

many ideas belonging to the ancestral religion of Thor and Woden, and the

modern Burmese, though a Buddhist, carries on much of the old worship of

the spirits of the house and the forest, which belong to a far earlier

religious stratum than Buddhism. It is in many districts possible for

the traveller to obtain at first hand interesting information as to the

philosophical ideas which underlie all religions. All over the world,

people may be met with whose conception of soul or spirit is that

belonging to primitive animism, namely, that the life or soul of men,

beasts, or things, resides in the phantoms of them seen in dreams and

visions. A traveller in British Guiana had serious trouble with one of

his Arawaks, who, having dreamt that another had spoken impudently to

him, on waking up went quite naturally to his master to get the offender

punished. So it is reported that our officials in Burma have considered

themselves disrespectfully treated when the wife or servant of the person

they have come to see has refused to wake him, the Englishman not

understanding that these people hold early animistic ideas, believing

the soul to be away from the sleeper’s body in a dream, so that it

might not find its way back if he were disturbed. As scientific ideas

of the nature of life and dreams are rapidly destroying these primitive

conceptions, it is desirable to collect all information about them for

its important bearing on the history of philosophy and religion. The same

may be said as to the ancient theory of diseases as caused by demons, and

the expulsion and exorcism of them as a means of cure, which may still

be studied everywhere outside the scientific nations. Information as to

religious rites is of course valuable, even when the foreign observer

does not understand them, but if possible their exact meaning should be

made out by some one acquainted with the language, otherwise acts may

be confused which have really different senses, as where a morsel of

food offered as a pious offering to an ancestral ghost may be taken for

a sacrifice to appease an angry wood-demon. A people’s idea as to the

meaning of their own rites may often be very wrong, but it is always

worth while to hear what they think of the purpose of their prayers,

sacrifices, purifications, fasts, feasts, and other religious ordinances,

which even among savage tribes have been long since stereotyped into

traditional systems.

Mythology is intimately mixed up with religion, which not only ascribes

the events of the world to the action of spirits, demons, or gods, but

everywhere individualises many of these beings under personal names,

and receives as sacred tradition wonder-tales about them. Thus, to

understand the religion of some tribes, we have not only to consider the

rude philosophy under which such objects as heaven and earth or sun and

moon are regarded as personal beings, whose souls (so to speak) are the

heaven-god and earth-god, the sun-god and moon-god; but we have to go

on further and collect the religious myths which have grown on to these

superhuman beings. The tales which such a people tell of their origin and

past history may to some extent include traditions of real events, but

mostly they consist of myths, which are also worth collecting, as they

often on examination disclose their origin, or part of it. This is seen,

for instance, in the South Sea Island tale of the god Maui, whose death,

when he plunged into the body of his great ancestress the Night, is an

obvious myth of the sunset. The best advice as to native mythology is to

write down all promising native stories, leaving it to future examination

to decide which are worth publishing. The native names of personages

occurring in such stories should be inquired into, as they sometimes

carry in themselves the explanation of the story itself, like the name of

Great-Woman-Night in the Polynesian myth just referred to. Riddles are

sometimes interesting, as being myths with an explanation attached, like

the Greek riddle of the twelve black and twelve white horses that draw

the chariot of the day. It is not too much to say that everything which a

people thinks worth remembering as a popular tradition, and all the more

if it is fixed in rhyme or verse, is worth notice, as likely to contain

something of historical value. That it may not be historically true is

beside the question, for the poetic fictions of a tribe often throw more

light on their history than their recollections of petty chiefs who

quarrelled fifty years ago. The myths may record some old custom or keep

up some old word that has died out of ordinary talk, or the very fact of

their containing a story known elsewhere in the world may give a clue to

forgotten intercourse by which it was learnt.

_Customs._—It remains to say a few words as to the multifarious customs

which will come under the traveller’s observation. It does not follow

that because these may be mentioned or described in books they need

not be further looked into. The fact is that accurate examination in

such matters is so new, that something always remains to be made out,

especially as the motives of so many customs are still obscure. The

practice of artificially deforming the infant’s skull into a desired

shape, which is not quite forgotten even in Europe, may be noticed with

respect to the question whether the form to which the child’s head is

bulged or flattened is the exaggeration of the natural form of an admired

caste or race. If not, what can, for instance, have induced two British

Columbian tribes, one to flatten their foreheads and the other to mould

them up to a peak? In tattooing, an even more widespread practice, it

is well to ascertain whether the pattern on the skin seems to have been

originally tribe-marks or other signs or records, or whether the purpose

is ornament. In South-East Asia the two motives are present at once, when

a man has ornamental designs and magical charm-figures together on his

body. With regard to ornaments and costumes, the keeping-up of ancient

patterns for ceremonial purposes often affords curious historical hints.

Thus in the Eastern Archipelago, the old-fashioned garments of bark-cloth

are used in mourning by people who have long discarded them in ordinary

wear, and another case is found among some natives of South India, whose

women, though they no longer put on an apron of leaves as their real

ordinary garment, wear it over a cotton skirt on festival-days. Among

the amusements of a people, songs are often interesting musically, and

it is well to take them down, not only for the tunes, but also for the

words, which sometimes throw light on old traditions and beliefs. Dancing

varies from spontaneous expression of emotion to complex figures handed

down by tradition and forming part of social and religious ceremony. The

number of popular games in the world is smaller than would be supposed.

When really attractive they may be adopted from one people to another

till they make their way round the world. Any special variety, as of ball

or draughts, should therefore be noticed, as it may furnish evidence of

intercourse by which it may have come from some distant nation.

Though the subjects of anthropological interest are not even fully

enumerated in the present chapter, some idea may have been given of

the field of observation still open to travellers, not only in remote

countries, but even in Europe. In taking notes, the explorer may be

recommended not to be afraid of tedious minuteness, whereas the lively

superficiality of popular books of travel makes them almost worthless for

anthropology.[15]

* * * * *

In looking through the above remarks, written some years since,

alteration has seemed hardly needful. The writer thinks, however, that

it may be useful to call attention to the increased opportunities of

travellers to study and obtain implements of the rudest and most ancient

Stone Age. Up to a few years ago they could only have expected to

find proof of the recent use among savages of stone hatchets, knives,

arrow-heads, etc., such as in Europe are relics of ancient tribes. These,

indeed, have been known for more than a generation not to be the oldest

relics of the kind, but have been called neolithic or of the New-Stone

Age, to distinguish them from the far older and lower types of the

mammoth period, called palæolithic or of the Old-Stone Age. Implements

of this class, after their discovery in Europe, were soon noticed in

India, and are now especially recognised as found over a great part

of Africa. Of later years, in the islands of the South Pacific, stone

implements of an even lower class have not only been found in the ground,

but there is evidence that they had remained in use into modern times.

In Tasmania it is on record from European eye-witnesses that tools made

from chips of hard stone by trimming to an edge on one side, and which

were grasped in the hand without any handle, were the cutting and hacking

instruments of the natives into the last century, almost up to the time

of their extinction. Thus apparently the oldest known phase of human

life endured in this region untouched by civilisation, and travellers

have the opportunity of studying its recent relics in Tasmania, while

similar traces of rude Stone Age life, though not reaching up to so

late a time, are making their appearance both in West Australia and New

Zealand. Travellers should be careful to consider whether chipping is

really artificial, and not due to natural action of water or wind-blown

sand. There is no doubt that many “implements” in our museums are freaks

of nature, _e.g._, those found in such quantities in the desert plateaux

above the lower Nile.

Travellers of the present day have still opportunities of observation in

the history of culture which will have disappeared in another generation.

Inquiry in outlying countries should be made for the vanishing survivals

of arts and customs, stories, and even languages. In Europe there is much

of this kind to be met with by the inquirer, especially off the beaten

track. Thus the dug-out canoe, the monoxyle of Hippokrates, need not be

sought on African lakes, for it is still the fisherman’s craft of Hungary

and Bosnia; and in the same region the apparatus for producing the

ceremonial need-fire by friction of wood, which disappeared from Scotland

towards the beginning of last century, and the “whithorn” of coiled bark,

the rustic musical instrument just vanishing from English peasant life,

are still in ceremonial use. As for savage tribes which come within

the traveller’s ken, though their stone implements have been mostly

superseded by the white man’s cutlery, many arts of the remote past may

still be seen. The yet simpler means of producing fire by drilling a

stick with the hands without further mechanical adaptation may still be

seen among savages who have not lost their old arts, and the twisting of

thread with the hands, which preceded the use of even the spindle, is

not everywhere forgotten. Though the study of the religion and folk-lore

of the savage and barbaric world must be left to those who are residents

rather than visitors, the passer-by who inquires may see primitive rites

of religion or magic. Thus in many an Indian house in Arizona or New

Mexico the traveller is reminded of his classic recollections when he

sees the first morsel of the meal thrown into the fire as an offering to

the ancestral spirits.

NOTE BY PROFESSOR R. R. MARETT.

‘Although Sir Edward Tylor’s summary account of the task of the field

anthropologist was written many years ago, and is now reproduced in a

substantially unaltered form, one can confidently recommend it as still

adequate to the needs of a rapidly progressing science. The general plan

of campaign, so brilliantly sketched here, remains much the same. On the

other hand, the traveller in these latter days, instead of opening up

fresh fields, must for the most part be content to work over old ground

more carefully than his predecessors. Unless, therefore, he is prepared

to discard superficial modes of observation and devote himself to a

critical and intensive study of the available facts, he had much better

leave the subject alone. It will help greatly if he has been through a

course of special training, such as several of the leading Universities

can nowadays provide.’—R. R. MARETT.

The following books will be found useful to the traveller, besides those

mentioned above:—

‘Handbook of Folk-lore’; published by the Folk-lore Society. Ed. C. S.

Burne.

‘Anthropology’: Prof. R. R. Marett. Home University Library. Williams &

Norgate.

QUERIES OF ANTHROPOLOGY.

_By the late SIR A. W. FRANKS, K.C.B., F.R.S._

I. _Physical Character._

Average height of men and women in each tribe. Character of hair:

straight, wavy, curly, frizzy, or woolly. Prognathism. Strength in

lifting and carrying weights, &c. Speed in running. Accuracy of aim.

Knowledge of numbers, weights, and measures.

II. _Mode of Subsistence._

Whether mainly by hunting, or by pastoral or agricultural pursuits. Any

instances of dwellings in caves.

Use of boats; forms of boats and of paddles; mode of paddling.

Any particular stratagems used in hunting, snares and traps; implements

for hunting; use of dogs and of cross-bows, as well as bows and arrows.

Fishing; nets; fish-hooks; spears; any javelins or arrows with loose

heads attached by a cord.

Modes of cooking, and implements used; any particular observances in

cooking or at meals; any separation of sexes at meals. How is fire

produced? and are any persons charged with the preservation of it?

Forms and construction of houses. Separation of the sexes.

Furniture of houses.

Plans of towns and fortifications.

Plants cultivated for food or manufactures; agricultural implements.

III. _Religion and Customs._

Birth ceremonies.

What are the idols and their names? Is there any distinction between them

in importance? What worship is paid to them? and what offerings are made,

and on what occasions?

Are there any particular superstitions? What fetishes or amulets are

used? by whom are they made? Are there any forms of divination, any use

of casting lots with cowries, ordeals by poison or otherwise?

Vampire beliefs and ghost beliefs generally.

Cannibalism, and motives for the same.

Funeral rites. Belief in a future state. Deposit of objects with the

dead, and whether deposited broken or whole, in or on the graves.

Are burial customs associated with belief in destiny after death?

It is important that the traveller should distinguish between genuine

native traditions and those acquired through contact with civilised

peoples.

Peace survivals among newer peoples.

IV. _Arts and Manufactures._

Mode of spinning and weaving; patterns and materials employed.

Dyeing and nature of dyes.

Any mode of preparing and working leather.

Any knowledge of glass-making. If not acquainted with the manufacture of

glass, do they melt down broken European glass and beads to make armlets

and other ornaments?

Musical instruments: their forms, nature, and names.

Knowledge of pottery and mode of manufacture.

Use and manufacture of tobacco and other narcotics; forms of

tobacco-pipes; any ceremonies connected with smoking; use of snuff;

snuff-bottles.

Manufacture and trade in salt, wine, beer, or other liquors.

Knowledge of simple medical remedies, cupping, etc.

Ivory and wood-carving.

Metallurgy: working in the various metals, whether by a special class of

people or tribes; implements used in smelting, etc. Where are the ores

obtained?

Is there any knowledge of precious stones?

V. _Personal Ornaments, Disfigurements, etc._

Are there any special marks made by tattooing or cicatrices to

distinguish the various tribes? are they the same in both sexes? Drawings

of these marks would be very desirable, distinguishing each tribe.

Are the teeth filed or knocked out? If the former, into what shapes are

they filed? when is the filing effected? and is it the same for both

sexes?

Is antimony used for the eyelids? and how is it applied?

Are ear-ornaments worn by either sex? are they pendent or inserted in the

lobe? Are there any nose or lip ornaments?

Is the hair cut into any peculiar shape, or is its colour altered by

dyeing?

Is any cap or protection worn on the penis, as by the Kafirs and other

tribes?

Any peculiarities of dress for men and women? any distinction between

married and unmarried?

What protection is worn in battle? What are the forms of the weapons? and

is any missile weapon in use?

Is there any mutilation of the sex organs?

Are any marks used as distinctions for bravery, success in hunting or

rank?

VI. _Ivory and Wood Carving._

If elephant ivory is not of native origin, where is it obtained? Are

any other materials of the same nature employed in carving, such as

walrus-tusk, cachalot teeth, etc.? Are any very hard woods employed; and

if so, how are they worked?

VII. _Money._

What kinds of money are in use? Do the coins pass by weight as bullion,

or have they a recognised value? Are any objects such as iron bars or

tools, salt, pieces of cotton, cowries, beads, wampum, etc., employed as

a means of exchange? If so employed, is there any recognised way in which

their value is certified, or is their value the subject of bargain in

each case?

ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTES.

_By W. L. H. DUCKWORTH, M.D., SC.D., M.A._

The following notes deal in the briefest possible manner with the more

important observations to be made on human bones; and it is conceivable

that some such records might be obtained under circumstances precluding

the observer from securing or removing the actual specimens, and even

in instances where only a very brief period is available for inspecting

them. It is convenient to arrange the observations under the following

separate headings:—

1. The circumstances attending the death of the individual should be

first investigated, and observations concerning the mode and locality

of interment should be recorded (cf. Professor Tylor’s Schedule, under

‘Funeral Rites’).

2. The general condition of the specimen next demands attention. This is

to some extent dependent upon circumstances referred to in the preceding

section. From the texture and preservation of the actual bony substance,

a rough estimate may be formed as to the lapse of time since the death

of the individual. The occurrence of the skull alone, or at a distance

from the remainder of the skeleton, should be noted.

3. The greater weight and size, as well as the greater prominence of the

brow-ridges and ridges at the back of the skull, serve to distinguish

the male _sex_, but in many cases the determination of sex is almost

impossible.

As regards _age_, skulls are conveniently described as immature, adult or

senile. Immature skulls lack the full complement of teeth or of sockets

for these, and a deep cleft is seen to cross the base of the skull about

an inch in front of the large hole (foramen magnum) for the spinal cord.

Upon the attainment of maturity this cleft is obliterated, by the fusion

of its margins. In senile crania, the sutural lines on the surface are

almost entirely obliterated, and the jaws are toothless and much reduced

in size and prominence.

4. The skull may be deformed. It is important to attempt to distinguish

_deformation_ produced during life (either artificially or otherwise)

from that determined by the weight of superincumbent soil after

interment. Artificial deformation is manifested in most cases by

flattening of the forehead, or of the back of the skull, or of both. But

posthumous deformation is quite irregular, the face is often involved as

well as the brain-case, there is often extreme flattening from side to

side, and the bones are usually fragile and tend to fall apart.

5. _Trephine-holes_, indicative of enterprise in operative surgery,

should be noted. The regularity of contour and the size of the hole

often gives the clue to its real nature. It must be remembered

that, in the process of exhumation, injuries closely resembling the

foregoing operative wounds may be received by skulls, and therefore

the circumstances of exhumation demand enquiry in this connection.

Some skulls are found to have been incised or engraved with decorative

patterns after death.

6. _Craniological descriptions_ deal with the appearances presented by

skulls in each of the five normal positions or aspects depicted in Fig. 1.

In the first view or aspect (Fig. 1, B) the general form of the skull

is shewn, and in proportions the cranial case may be either elongated

or rotund; or again, if elongated, it may be elliptical (with no great

difference in form between front and back), ovoid (when the hinder end is

the broader), or rhomboid (lozenge or diamond-shaped).

In Fig. 1, C, the profile line, and its modification by prominent

brow-ridges or jaws, claims attention. In Fig. 1, D, the general form

of the eye (orbital aperture) and nose (nasal aperture), as well as

the relative breadth of the face, are considered. Fig. 1, E, shows the

palate, and the number and forms of the teeth are studied from this

point of view. In Fig. 1, A, the form of the transverse cranial arc, and

any irregularities, such as flattening or the production of a keeled

(scaphoid) appearance, should be noted.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.

The five normæ, or aspects of the human skull, viz.:—(B) Norma

verticalis, the vertex view; (C) Norma lateralis; (D) Norma facialis; (E)

Norma basilaris; (A) Norma occipitalis.]

7. The _lower jaw_ is studied independently. The prominence of the chin,

the squareness of the angle, the stoutness of the whole bone, and

the number and characters of the teeth are the chief points to which

attention is directed.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.—Measurement of the length of the skull with

callipers (Flower’s Craniometer as modified by Dr. Duckworth).

FIG. 3.—Measurement of the length of the skull with another form of

callipers.]

8. _Cranial measurements_ are made with callipers and a flexible steel or

tape measure. These objects, as well as a graduated two-meter rod used

for measuring stature or long bones, are supplied in a travelling case

by Messrs. Hermann of Zürich, who have made them to Professor Martin’s

designs. The whole outfit costs about £4, but the instruments can be

obtained separately. Messrs. Hermann also make a modified form of the

callipers, known as Flower’s Craniometer (cf. Fig. 2). Measurements

are recorded in millimeters, in which the various callipers, etc., are

graduated. The latter instruments may have the forms represented in

Fig. 2 (Flower’s Craniometer) or Fig. 3, in which are shown the exact

positions of the instruments in measuring the length of the skull.

The chief measurements may be now enumerated in order of importance:—

i. The _extreme length_ of the brain-case, measured as shown in

Figs. 2 and 3.

ii. The _maximum breadth_ of the skull is measured on the

brain-case.

iii. The _circumference_ of the brain-case (as distinct from

the face) is measured with the flexible tape passed round the

brow-ridges and the back of the skull. The measurement is that

of the greatest circumference of the brain-case obtainable in

this way.

iv. Measurements illustrative of the degree of prominence

of the upper jaw are two in number, and are made with the

callipers. The two measurements start from the same point

behind; this point is the middle of the front edge, or margin,

of the hole for the spinal cord (foramen magnum), shown in

Fig. 1, E. From this common point, the upper or _basi-nasal

measurement_ passes to the upper border of the nasal bones in

the middle line of the face, and the lower or _basi-alveolar

measurement_ passes to the extreme front edge of the upper jaw

in the middle line, just above and between the upper incisor

teeth.

9. _Measurements of the long bones_ of the limbs. These are best made

by means of a graduated rod with fixed and movable limbs, resembling a

large pair of callipers. Such a rod is supplied (as indicated above) by

Messrs. Hermann. The bones to be measured are six in number for each side

of the body, viz.:—those of the upper arm and thigh (humerus and femur);

then two for the forearm (called radius and ulna, the former being the

shorter); and two for the leg (called tibia and fibula, the former, or

shin-bone, being the larger). The extreme or maximum length is measured

in each case, excepting those of the femur and tibia.

i. The femur is measured obliquely, that is, from its ball-like

head to a line touching _both_ prominences at the lower end, as

shown at B in Fig. 4. This represents the position of the bone

in a person standing erect.

ii. The spiny processes on the upper end of the tibia are not

included in the measurement of its length.

Immature limb-bones are recognised by the line which demarcates the

extreme ends, or epiphyses, from the shaft (or diaphysis). Sexual

differences are chiefly indicated by greater length, stoutness, and also

by the development of osseous ridges in male bones.

[Illustration: FIG. 4.—Position of the thigh-bone for measurement of its

length.]

10. The measurements of the long bones are used in estimating the

_stature_. Special notice is to be paid to individuals of giant or of

dwarf stature. In this connection particular mention should be made in

the following instances:—

(_a_) Where the thigh bone measures more than 52 cm., or less

than 36 cm.

(_b_) Where the shin bone measures more than 42 cm., or less

than 28 cm.

(_c_) Where the fibula measures more than 41 cm., or less than

28 cm.

(_d_) Where the upper arm bone measures more than 37 cm., or

less than 26 cm.

(_e_) Where the ulna measures more than 29 cm., or less than 20

cm.

(_f_) Where the radius measures more than 27 cm., or less than

19 cm. (only adult bones being considered, and the sex, where

known, recorded).

11. Adult skulls will also excite attention when the horizontal

circumference (measured in accordance with the directions provided above)

is greater than 56 cm., or less than 47 cm.

VI.

INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE.[16]

_By SIR JOHN SCOTT KELTIE, LL.D., formerly Secretary, R.G.S._

The kind of information desired under this heading may be summed up in

the three following questions, so far as uncivilised or semi-civilised

countries are concerned:—

(1.) What are the available resources of the country that may

be turned to industrial or commercial account?

(2.) What commercial products can find an available market in

the country?

(3.) What are the facilities for or hindrances to intercourse

between the country and the rest of the world?

Or, briefly, (1) Resources; (2) Wants; (3) Accessibility.

These include the questions of suitability for immigration and

colonisation.

What is known as commercial geography is one of several special

applications of geographical knowledge. From this practical point of

view, therefore, the observations collected under other heads in this

book will be of service, especially if the requirements of commerce

are kept in view at the same time as the _desiderata_ of science. From

this standpoint, the sections on Meteorology, Geology, Natural History,

and Anthropology should be consulted. Even general geographical and

topographical observations will be of practical service—the general lie

of the country, its altitudes, and its character at certain altitudes,

its mountains, hills, valleys, plains, rivers—if regarded from the

special standpoint of habitability and possibilities of development.

The suggestions contained in this, as in the other sections of this

manual, are meant both for the ordinary explorer or traveller who may

have to pass rapidly through a country and for those who may have

more opportunity for making leisurely observations. To the former the

following brief hints may prove serviceable:—

Observe and note—

1. As regards RESOURCES:—

The extent or quantity, quality, facilities for raising or

collecting, for transport and shipment, etc., of

(_a_) The natural products, such as minerals and metals,

especially gold, silver, coal, iron, copper, tin, nitre,

guano, phosphates, etc.; timber useful for various purposes;

vegetable products, useful for food, fibres, dye-stuffs, or

medicine—gums, resins, etc.; animal products useful for food,

skins, fur, feathers; riverine or lacustrine products, useful

for food, oil, or other purposes.

(_b_) Substances cultivated for food or for manufacturing

purposes.

(_c_) Articles manufactured for clothing, for domestic,

warlike, or other purposes.

(_d_) Native methods of developing resources, of carrying on

manufactures, and of transport.

(_e_) Practicability of developing the resources of the country

by European methods.

2. As to WANTS:—

(_a_) What particular things used by the natives could be

profitably supplied from the outside?

(_b_) What do the natives lack that might be introduced and

supplied from the outside?

(_c_) In all cases be particular to note favourite materials,

shapes, colours, or other peculiarities, as of cloths,

implements, ornaments, such as beads, anklets, etc.

3. As to ACCESSIBILITY:—

Note the nearest ports and railways; the character and

connections of native roads, if any; the navigability of

rivers, inlets and lakes for various kinds of craft at various

seasons of the year; heights of passes, whether suitable for

animals or only for porters, whether blocked at any season of

year; routes likely to be suitable for railways.

In all cases where practicable, specimens of products should be obtained,

in order that specialists at home may judge of their industrial or

commercial value.

For those who may have more leisure for observation, some or all of the

following detailed hints may be useful:—

MINERALS AND METALS.—It is not necessary to add much here to what has

been said under Geology. If the traveller is not himself competent, or

has no opportunity to test the value of these products, he should bring

home specimens; this, if possible, should be done in any case. Under this

section a look-out should be kept for any indication of naphtha, asphalt,

or mineral oils. From the commercial point of view the important points

are—

_Quality._—To what extent are minerals or metals, as gold, copper, iron,

phosphates, mixed up with other matter? What is the yield per ton of ore?

In the case of coal, how does it burn, and what is the percentage of ash?

Next—

_Quantity._—Does the substance occur in sufficient quantity to make it

worth expenditure of capital and labour? The information must be obtained

by personal inspection. Finally—

_Locality._—Is the situation of the deposits easily accessible? How are

they situated with reference to routes, existing or practicable? and how

with reference to ports of embarkation? Could they be worked with the

resources available in the country, or would labour and machinery require

to be introduced? If worked in the country, is there any neighbouring

market for the manufactured products? What are the native processes (if

any) of obtaining and working minerals?

We must again refer to the section on Geology for further details, and

the intending traveller would do well to take a few lessons before he

leaves, so as to be able to recognise the most common and useful minerals

and the conditions under which they usually occur; he will thus save much

time and trouble.

VEGETABLE PRODUCTS.—The directions for observation and collection given

under the Botanical section should be attended to; and it is important

that the traveller should be able to recognise the chief classes of

plants, so that specialists may be able to pronounce generally on their

utility.

_Character of Surface._—The general character of the surface of a

country, so far as its vegetation is concerned, should be clearly

grasped. What proportion, or, if possible, what area is under forest?

what under grass? what desert, or mountain, or marsh, or uncultivable?

what under cultivation?

_Forests._—If of a generally forest or thickly-wooded character, are

the forests extensive and dense, with much undergrowth, as in tropical

South America? or easily penetrable, as the forests of Europe and North

America? Or are the trees scattered, either in clumps, or singly, as in a

great part of Central Africa? Do they prevail over the country generally,

or are the river-banks only lined with dense tree vegetation? Are the

forests only found in the low country, or do they cover the hills and

extend up the mountains?

_Timber._—Ascertain the leading characteristics of the trees of the

forests. What are the prevailing families, and, if possible, genera and

species? What uses, if any, do the natives make of the woods? Which

do they use for their houses, their furniture, their canoes, their

weapons, their ornaments? How do the woods seem to stand tear and wear,

the climate, the attack of destructive insects, immersion in water? Are

there any woods that would do for such purposes as railway-sleepers or

telegraph-poles in the conditions which prevail in the country? Any

ornamental woods suitable for cabinet purposes?

_Fibres, Fruits, Chemicals, etc._—Are there any plants the fibres

of which could be turned to account? Any fruits adapted to human

consumption, and are they found in any quantity, or could they be

cultivated?

Are there any trees or other plants suitable for drugs or chemicals—bark,

leaves, juices, roots? What medicines, narcotics, or stimulants are used

by the natives? how are they obtained and how prepared?

Are there any species of useful plants growing wild—coffee, sugar,

cotton, vanilla, spices, etc.? Any trees producing gums that might be

of commercial value, like gum arabic, gutta-percha, or caoutchouc? Or

any whose fruits yield oil, like the cocoa-nut and the olive? Do the

natives make use of these juices? What are the processes of extraction

and preparation?

_Other Vegetation._—When there is an undergrowth, its character should be

noticed, and the diseases, if any, to which trees are subject.

Note what other vegetation exists besides that of trees. Are there any

plants like the turnip, the potato, the batata, which are useful as

foods, or for other purposes? Specimens of any herbs likely to be useful

should be obtained, especially if they are used by the natives for

medicine, for dyeing, for poison, or other useful purposes.

Sometimes, as in Central and Western Australia, what arboraceous

vegetation exists consists mainly of shrubs, the character of which

should be noted. Do they hinder locomotion? Are their shoots useful for

forage? Are they injurious to horses and cattle?

When there is herbaceous vegetation of any extent, what is its character?

Is it tall and coarse and reedy, like much of the African grass? Or such

as is found on the prairies and pampas? Or of a troublesome spinifex

character, as in Australia? Or of a turf-like character, like the grasses

of Europe? What are the components of this kind of vegetation, and how

far is it likely to prove useful as fodder? What uses do the natives put

it to, either for their animals or for manufactures? Do they use it for

making mats or cloth? Are there any plants mixed with it injurious to

animals? What is the condition of the grass at different seasons of the

year? When is it at its best, its strongest, its densest? Is it liable

to be parched up at any season? To what extent is its condition affected

by the climate, by rainfall, by irrigation, natural or artificial? Is it

easily removed, in order to make way for other cultures? Does it spread

into the forest region, and has it any special characteristics there? How

does it, as well as other useful vegetation, vary with altitude or other

local conditions? Do the products change under different agricultural

conditions? e.g., some are poisonous under certain conditions, not others?

_Marshes, Deserts, Irrigation._—Note if marshes or peat-bogs, or other

special features of the surface exist to any extent, and whether the

drainage of marshes is practicable.

Where deserts exist, note their character. Are they sandy, gravelly,

rocky, salt? What is the prevailing rock? If the desert character of the

land (as is generally the case) seems due to want of water, is there any

artificial means likely to be available for supplying that want? Is there

any storage of water and irrigation among the natives? and, if so, how is

it accomplished? and what are the results? Are there any sources within

reach, either above or underground, from whence a supply of water for

irrigation purposes could be obtained? Indicate any exceptional defects

of quality in the supply of water.

Note if any part of the country is liable to periodical inundations.

At what periods of the year do they occur? Are these inundations

destructive, or are they utilised for agricultural purposes? Would it be

possible to regulate these inundations?

AGRICULTURE.—The general outcome of all these observations is the

suitability of a country for agricultural development. What articles

do the natives cultivate, if any? Has the cultivated land any special

character, or is it simply the ordinary land cleared of trees or grass,

or other wild growth? Note the methods and implements of culture used by

the natives; the seasons of sowing and reaping, and preparing the crops

for use. Do they depend for water on rainfall or irrigation? To what

altitudes is cultivation carried, and what are the crops that prosper at

these altitudes?

From the point of view of colonisation and agriculture, precise

information as to the nature of the soil is desirable. The proportion or

extent of a country suitable for agriculture might be noted. Observe,

as precisely as practicable, the nature and depth of the upper layer

of soil. The depth—it may be a few inches, or it may be two or three

feet—can easily be ascertained. A general idea may also be given of its

nature. Is it mostly vegetable mould, as it is likely to be in old forest

or grass countries? or peaty? or marshy? If possible, also, ascertain the

depth of the subsoil down to the rock or clay, or other permanent basis

on which it rests. In a general way it might be observed whether the soil

is sandy, gravelly, stony, calcareous, marly, clayey. Also is it compact,

tenacious, or loose, and, above all, is it permeable or impermeable to

water? Is the soil very dry or very moist? or what is its intermediate

stage?

If the natives carry on cultivation, ascertain, if possible, the yield

per acre of what they cultivate. Do they cultivate only for their own

wants? If not, where and what is the nature of the market to which they

send the surplus?

Does the country seem suitable for other cultures besides those carried

on by the natives?

ANIMAL PRODUCTS.—If there are wild animals in the country, observe

whether the natives hunt them for what they yield in the way of food or

other useful products. Are there any ivory-yielding animals, or animals

whose skins can be turned to profitable account? Could a sufficient

supply for mercantile purposes be obtained by means of native hunters,

if properly encouraged; or how would it be best to work such resources?

Are there any laws or customs enforced by the natives in hunting wild

animals? Are there any noxious wild animals, and to what extent do they

affect human comfort and human life?

_Domestic Animals._—It is important to know what domestic animals the

natives possess, how they are reared and fed, and what uses they are

put to. Also whether the country is good for horses, cattle, sheep,

and poultry, and approximately what is the extent, situation, and

accessibility of the grazing-lands. Are the pastures perennial? To what

extent do they depend on rainfall, or irrigation, or on intermittent

streams? During what months of the year are they available? Are there any

plants among the pastures injurious to animals? Are there any insects

(like the _tsetse_) or other animals injurious to cattle or horses? Do

horses or asses exist among the natives, and what uses are they put to?

If not, would they be likely to flourish, if introduced?

_Fisheries._—Information concerning fish and fisheries is desirable;

and among fish, from the practical standpoint, are included shell-fish

(especially pearl shells), sponges, corals, and animals of the whale and

seal kind. If the natives practise fishing, either in lakes, rivers, or

the sea, ascertain the kinds of fish they capture, their methods and

implements, and the particular seasons at which fishing is practised.

Are the fisheries, whether worked by the natives or not, likely to be of

commercial value?

TRADE.—Much of the information suggested above will be of service

from the special commercial point of view, especially with

reference to export. Information should be obtained concerning any

manufactures carried on by the natives besides what has been suggested

above—manufactures in metal, in wood, in clay, or stone; in materials

derived from the vegetable and animal kingdoms, what they are, what

uses they are put to, what processes are used, and to what extent, if

any, they form articles of trade. With regard to the import market,

what generally are the wants of the natives and what new wants might

be created. If possible, some approximate estimate of the value of the

leading classes of imports, if there are any, should be obtained.

Ascertain if any goods are brought into the country from the outside;

if so, what they are, where they come from, and as accurate an estimate

as possible of quantity, or value, or both. In the case of imports from

civilised countries, are those of any particular country preferred, and,

if so, why? Is it owing to anything special in quality, or pattern, or

cost, means of communication, or in quantity available? Is there any

special tribe of middlemen who prevent the inland people from coming

into direct relation with traders? Probably a market could be created

for outside manufactures which have not as yet been introduced into the

country; or such manufactures might easily obtain a market in preference

to those of native make. Note especially the patterns of articles of

native make, as these are probably adapted to the conditions of the

country, and should therefore be imitated or improved upon in the case

of imported goods, the quality of the latter being better, and the cost,

if possible, lower. British traders, especially, often incur serious

losses by not ascertaining in advance what particular articles and what

special patterns are in demand among natives. Note also whether European

methods might not be introduced with advantage for the manufacture of

native goods. Native usages as to credit ought to be ascertained, what

safeguards are binding, what is the medium of exchange, etc. It would be

useful to discover beforehand whether the importation of machinery and

explosives is likely to be unimpeded.

CLIMATE.—This is an essential item, so far as the exploitation of

tropical and semi-tropical countries by Europeans is concerned. Its

main elements are determined by temperature, latitude, altitude, and

rainfall; the character of the surface should also be taken into account.

Under Meteorology, the main directions on the subject are given. The

temperature at different seasons and at different times of the day (say

9 A.M., 3 P.M., and 9 P.M.) should be ascertained, and that at various

altitudes. Rainfall observations are not of much service unless they can

be obtained over a continuous series of years. Ascertain the distribution

of rainfall over the year, and the limits of the rainy period of the

year, when such period exists, and, if possible, the quantity which

falls in the different months of the period; how does the rainfall differ

with altitude and other topographical variations? If a country is subject

to droughts, it is important to ascertain if there is any periodicity

in these droughts, and how they affect the resources and prospects of

the country, and the condition of the rivers. Would it be possible, by

storage of water or other means, to counteract to any extent the bad

effects of drought?

What effect has the rainy period and the drought period on the native

inhabitants, and especially on Europeans? As far as possible, ascertain

the birth and death rate per annum.

FACILITIES AND HINDRANCES TO COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT.—Under this head

the first consideration is Accessibility or Means of Communication.

Generally, the quickest, cheapest, and safest routes to a satisfactory

market should be ascertained.

_Water Communication._—Observe what natural means of communication exist,

what is the nature of communication between the country and the outside

world. If communication by sea is of importance, how is the interior to

be reached from the sea? Are there any deep inlets? Is there practicable

river communication? For what sort of vessels is it adapted? Are there

any obstructions in the river, and, if so, what is their nature, and how

could they be surmounted? What is the width of the river, the depth of

the water, and the force of the current, at various distances from the

mouth, and at the periods of the year when the river is at its lowest and

highest? Are there any lakes that could be utilised for communication?

_Roads._—If there are native roads, state precisely what is their

nature under various conditions of weather; their width; what sort of

vehicles, if any, they are suited for, and where they lead to. If the

country is mountainous, ascertain the principal passes, what places they

connect, their exact heights at the highest point (not the heights of

the mountains), for what animals or vehicles they are practicable, or if

only for porters, and what is their condition at various seasons of the

year. If the natives have any vehicles, or vessels, or other means of

transport, describe them.

_Railway Routes._—Observe, as far as possible, suitable routes for

railway or canal communication, as well as for good roads, and whether

any materials for railway construction are obtainable in the country.

Possibly the country, if an inland one, could be connected by road or

rail with some existing railway system. What are the nearest telegraph

stations?

_Labour._—Another important consideration under this head is that of

labour—labour for the varied enterprises connected with the development

of a country’s resources. Is labour obtainable within the country itself?

If so, to what extent, and on what terms? Are the natives industrious,

and are they likely to labour under foreign superintendence? Does slavery

or forced labour in any form exist? If not obtainable in the country, how

may labour be most easily and cheaply obtained? Is the country suited to

manual labour by whites? If there are only certain kinds of labour in

which whites may engage, state what they are.

To what extent could machinery be used with advantage? Is there any water

power available? or any animal power?

_Currency, Tariffs, etc._—Under this head also questions relating to

currency should be included, or whatever other medium of exchange exists.

Another important consideration here is the question of tariffs,

which, in one shape or another, exist in nearly all uncivilised and

semi-civilised countries, from the hongo of Central Africa to the Customs

duties of Eastern countries. Precise information concerning these, both

as to exports and imports, is important.

Note, also, as precisely as practicable, the cost of living for Europeans

settling down for a time, and the expenses involved in travelling through

a country.

_Inhabitants._—Is there anything in the character of the

natives—physical, mental, or moral—likely to affect commercial

intercourse or the industrial development of the country? Any prejudices

or superstitions that should be attended to? Anything in the attitude

of natives to traders and settlers deserving consideration? Is the

population nomadic or settled? What material, if any, do they use

for smoking, and what is the nature of their intoxicating drinks, if

they have any? Estimate, as nearly as possible, the population, the

density per square mile, both for the country as a whole and for the

chief centres of population. Ascertain the nature of any political or

social organisation which exists. What are the terms on which land can

be acquired? What are the prevalent crimes? Under the Anthropological

section directions are given for ascertaining the leading racial

characteristics of the people.

VII.

ARCHÆOLOGY.

_By D. G. HOGARTH, C.M.G., M.A., D.LITT._

This section is intended, not for experts, but for those travellers

without special interest or experience in archæological work, who,

finding themselves in districts where unpublished antiquities exist, feel

it incumbent to record or rescue them. General hints, therefore, are

subjoined on methods of recording, cleaning, temporarily conserving, and

conveying monuments and objects of antiquity.

A.—RECORDING.

There are three ways of obtaining a record of a monument, all of which

should be used if possible in cases of importance:—

1. Mechanical reproduction by photography, moulding, or rubbing.

2. Reproduction by planning, drawing, or otherwise copying.

3. Literary memoranda of characteristics, _e.g._, dimensions, subject,

etc.

1. _Mechanical Reproduction._

_(a) Photography._—This subject has already been dealt with in Part II.,

and it is only necessary here to add a few hints, peculiarly applicable

to the photography of objects of antiquity.

_Of inscriptions_ photography does not, as a rule, supply a useful

reproduction, and unless time or other opportunity be wanting, it should

not be the only mechanical process applied. If an inscription is at

all worn, or the material on which it is engraved contains superficial

faults, do not rely on a photograph; but if one is taken, try to dispose

the object so that light falls on it from one side, with a slight

obliquity from above. In the case of rock inscriptions or others still

in their place on walls, etc., a photograph should be secured to show

relative position and surroundings. An inscription on dark material will

often need preparation with white chalk before being photographed to any

good purpose; but the traveller who has opportunity to do that, will

probably have equal opportunity to employ the better process of moulding.

For _sculpture_, photography will often be the only method of

reproduction possible to the traveller. When that is the case he may be

advised (1) to take his photographs on the largest possible scale; (2)

to take the object from all possible points of view; (3) to do what he

can to improve the light and relief of the subject. Small objects gain

enormously by reflected lights carefully arranged to bring out their

contours; if sufficient mirrors are not obtainable, strips of tin or

even white paper will serve as reflectors. Backgrounds may be chalked or

blacked as the case may be, but in the case of a relief this should only

be done when the outlines are very clear. If a sculpture on rock or other

material is much broken or worn, a good mechanical method of improving

relief, which Professor Petrie recommends, can be used; this consists in

dusting the face with powdery sand and then fanning it. The result, if

carefully done, is to leave hollows and background in strong contrast to

the surface of the relief. Highly polished or lucent surfaces should be

dulled before photographing. Metal objects do not, as a rule, photograph

very satisfactorily; and of coins it is much better to take a cast and

photograph that. Perhaps it is not superfluous to remind the photographer

to make notes of all colouring before leaving his subject. On preparing

sculpture, etc., for photography there are valuable practical hints in

Professor Petrie’s ‘_Methods and Aims in Archæology_,’ Chapter VII.

For _small objects of antiquity_, photography is not of much service

unless a camera with very long extension can be used. If it be possible,

the best way is to lay the objects on a sheet of glass raised about a

foot from the ground on a frame, and arrange the camera above, so as

to photograph downwards. This process obviates all ground shadows, and

all pins or other supports for the objects, which appear sharply on the

negative as if suspended in air.

For _buildings_ photography is, of course, the only method of mechanical

reproduction possible.

(_b_) _Moulding._—This in almost all cases will have to be done by

impressing _paper_. Only in the case of small objects will a traveller

ordinarily be able to use either _plaster of Paris_ (if he can procure

it) or _sealing wax_. As to the latter he may be reminded never to heat

his wax by putting it in direct contact with a flame, or the impression

will come out so parti-coloured or black as to be of little use; a card

should be held over a candle or lamp, or, better, a spirit burner, and

the wax rubbed upon the gradually heating upper surface till enough

has melted on to the card without boiling. A useful impression may be

obtained of coins, gems, etc., by pressing ordinary tin foil upon the

surface; but great care must be taken afterwards that the impression

does not get flattened out in transport. Mr. Petrie recommends floating

impressed foil on water face downwards, and dropping hot wax upon it, as

a solidifying agent.

As to the use of plaster of Paris it may be remembered that (1) the

proper mixture is just as much plaster as will absorb the water, leaving

none standing on the top; (2) the object must be well cleaned and soaped

before being moulded; (3) the plaster must be applied _very rapidly_, in

a thin coating all over the object at once: it can be backed with more

plaster afterwards; (4) a surface of any size should either be moulded in

sections, or, if done all at once, the plaster will probably have to be

cut into sections afterwards for transport. To cut it, it is best to lay

strings upon the object before moulding, which, later, can be pulled up

through the plaster while still viscous.

_Paper moulding_ or ‘_squeezing_’ is, however, the ordinary process

employed. Any fairly strong _unsized_ paper will serve more or less

well, but a special ‘squeeze’ paper is procurable in most large cities

where there are archæological museums (_e.g._, in London, from Nutt’s,

57 to 59, Long Acre, W.C.; in Paris, from Moreau’s, 11, Passage du Pont

Neuf; in Berlin, from Ebers Brothers. It can also be got direct from

the maker, Papierhändler Dorr, Spiesgasse, Strassburg.) Mr. Maudslay

recommended in a previous edition a hand-made paper, used for packing

oranges in Spain, and to be obtained of Messrs. Batalla, of Cacagente,

near Valencia, through the agency of Messrs. H. King & Co., Cornhill.

Failing these, the paper on which the commoner news-sheets are printed

will do. The other implements needed are a sponge, and close-bristled,

not very hard, brushes of two or three sizes, _e.g._, an ordinary

clothes-brush, a nail-brush, and a tooth-brush, if no others are at hand,

but special brushes with hand-straps on the back, or curved handles to

keep the knuckles of the beater away from the stone, are preferable. In

the case of an ordinary inscription, of not specially rough or uneven

surface, brush and clean the stone thoroughly, and pick all accumulation

out of the letters; then wet it thoroughly all over; lay the dry paper,

cut to size, as flat on the surface as possible, and dab it down with a

very wet sponge till thoroughly soaked; take the largest brush and pound

the paper rather gently all over, till it partially adheres; then take

smaller brushes and work the paper into all depressions with the maximum

pressure you can exert; finally, hammer it with the large brush again,

working systematically from top to bottom or side to side, not minding

the surface becoming mashed, and driving the air-bubbles, which collect

under the paper, before you and out at the farthest point. If the stone

was thoroughly wetted before the paper was laid on, these ought not

to be numerous or troublesome. Then, if the surface of the stone has

penetrated through the paper at any point, lay a second sheet and, if

necessary, a third, or more, and treat as the first was treated. Leave

the sheets, if possible, to dry on the stone, and all will come off as

one with a perfect reverse impression of the stone’s surface. Some soak

the paper before laying on the stone, but if that is done and there be

any wind, the paper, become very tender, will be apt to tear with its own

weight while being laid on, and will be difficult to lay flat. If for

any reason, _e.g._, overhanging of the stone’s face, it is difficult to

make the paper adhere, the task will prove easier with small pieces. But

whenever a surface is squeezed by sections, the operator must be careful

to make the edges of his sheets overlap, so that later all can be gummed

together as one sheet; to number the sheets according to a key-plan,

recorded in his note-book, and to mark on the sheets themselves the lines

of junction. All superfluous edges should be peeled off, as they are apt

to lift in the wind and cause all or a part of the impression to become

detached before it is well set, and weights should, if possible, be laid

on the drying paper. If for any reason the paper cannot be left to dry in

position, peel off carefully and lay out to dry reverse side uppermost.

The impression, so taken, will be hardly less good. When dry, roll the

squeeze inside a tin cylinder, and only very rough usage will harm it.

Squeezing sculptures is a more difficult matter. Mr. A. P. Maudslay gave

very full directions in an earlier edition of these “Hints” which may be

repeated here. After stating that all moulds of sculpture have to be made

of many thicknesses of paper, with a good coating of paste between every

few sheets (not only because of the great inequalities of surface, which

break through the paper, but also in order that the mould, when dry, may

be stout enough to keep its shape), he said:—

‘Paper can only properly be applied for the purpose of moulding when

the carving is free from large contours and deep undercutting; but it

is wonderful what accurate results can be obtained even when large

curves and some undercutting have to be contended against. Where worn

or splintered parts of a wood-carving, or fissures in a stone, or deep

undercutting which is not essential to the design, occur, it is often of

advantage to fill them up with clay or paper, to which a smooth surface

can be given, so that the mould will come away free from them when it is

dry; and careful notes and measurements will often enable one to restore

the contour to a mould which has suffered some pressure in transport. In

a properly-made mould the detail of carving is never lost, unless the

paper itself is destroyed.

‘A shallow tin bath (or two made to fit inside one another), large enough

to hold an open sheet of paper, is useful for soaking the paper in.[17]

Twenty sheets or more may be placed in the water at once, and left there

without harm for an hour or more; but a few minutes’ soaking is quite

enough.

‘I have several times had to mould, in America, the whole of a monolithic

monument—one as much as 25 feet in height—covered with carving and

hieroglyphic inscription, and have been perfectly successful in

reproducing it in plaster in England. Each face would be marked out into

three or more sections, and each section would be moulded separately,

great care being taken that each mould should considerably overlap the

margin of the other, so that when each section is cast in plaster the

edges of the cast can be cut away until the joint is perfect. And each

section should also overlap at the top and sides in No. 1, and at the

sides in No. 2, &c., for the same reason; and it is necessary to pay

careful attention to the beating in of the paper near the sides and

edges, as it is there that the layers are most likely to come apart when

dry. These edges can be trimmed down afterwards, if found too bulky in

packing.

‘The first sheets of paper should always be put on singly, and well

beaten in. If the carving presents many sharp angles, the paper will

again and again be broken away over them, and small scraps of paper may

be used for covering them up, until the whole section is covered at least

three papers deep in the thinnest place. The coat of paste should then

be given. If the paste is laid on when the mould is too thin, it will

penetrate to the stone, and prevent the mould coming off when dry. The

paste may be put on warm, but if too hot it draws the paper from the

stone (if it is a stone sculpture); air gets underneath the paper, and it

is very difficult to get rid of it again. Avoid, in putting on the first

papers, doubled edges or creases, and beat in well, so that the paper may

work into the grain of the stone or wood. It is easy to spoil a mould by

scamping the work in it, but not easy to spoil it by overbeating. After

giving a coat of paste with a brush, it is advisable to work in the paste

with the fingers, so as to be sure, from the smooth feeling, that it

penetrates the paper over the whole surface.

‘After the first coat of paste has been applied, a good deal of time

may be saved by employing an assistant to beat out the paper for the

further thickening of the mould, for when thus beaten out, two or three

thicknesses of paper can be laid on at the same time. Take about six

sheets together from the water, fold them, and then double them twice,

and slightly tear the wet doubled edges, so that when the sheets are laid

open again there are a number of small slits in the paper; then lay them

out together on any flat surface, and beat them out with a brush for a

few minutes. It is easy to separate them again into the required number

of sheets in thickness.

‘Another method which is equally good, if not better than the last, is,

after making the tears in the doubled sheets as before, to unfold them,

and then to roll them together and twist them up like a rope, and rub

them well between the hands; then unroll them and beat them out for

a moment, separating as many sheets as are required. Either of these

processes loosens the fibre of the paper, whilst the slits prevent it

stretching unevenly. After this treatment it feels to the touch more like

wet leather than paper.

‘As the mould grows thicker the pulpy paper will, from the continual

beating, find its way into, and fill up, the deeper cutting; but it

should be most carefully watched that the mould is not left too thin over

the more prominent parts of the surface, and, with a little practice,

the thickness is easily judged by the touch. It is always well to use the

fingers frequently both in pressing the paper into its place and working

in the paste.

‘It is difficult to lay down any rule as to the thickness of a mould and

the number of coatings of paste necessary. If the mould is of large size,

and the carving presents prominent angles or large curves, it may need an

average of thirty sheets in thickness to preserve its shape, and three

or four coatings of paste; but if the carving is in low-relief on a flat

surface, less than half the thickness will suffice.

‘In hot weather, out of doors, a mould will take about twenty-four hours

to dry; but it should be covered up at night from the dew. In damp

forests or in bad weather I have dried most of my moulds by building up

large wood fires at the distance of a few feet from the sculpture.

‘It is best to take off a mould when it is cool—in the morning or

evening. _Don’t be in a hurry about it._

‘If the mould is torn or broken in taking it off the carving, mend it

with paste _at once_.

‘When a mould is taken off, lay it to dry in the sun on a flat surface,

as there is usually some moisture left in it. If the mould is not flat in

shape, support it carefully, so as to preserve the contours.

‘When the mould is quite dry, it is advisable, but not necessary, to

give it, both back and front, one or more coats of boiled linseed oil.

Heat this oil before applying it, and it will then soak in well, and

use either a soft brush, and be careful, in oiling the surface of the

mould, not to rub too hard. As the paper easily absorbs moisture, the

moulds need to be carefully packed.’ Plaster casts can be taken very

successfully from paper moulds. See directions for casting above.

(_c_) _Rubbing_ can only be practised on a fairly smooth surface, and has

nothing to recommend it except the ease and celerity with which it can be

done. The traveller may as well carry a little heel-ball in his kit. Any

thin, tough paper will do.

2. _Other Reproductions._

_Planning_ and _drawing_ are dealt with in Vol. I. of these ‘Hints.’

_Copying_, as distinct from either, applies to inscriptions. A hand-copy

of an inscription as well as a mechanical reproduction should always be

made, partly because it has the better chance of surviving the accidents

of travel, partly because, if a stone surface is at all perished, anyone

with a keen eye and power of concentration ought to see more lettering

on its worn parts than will appear on a photograph or ‘squeeze.’ The

copy should be as near a facsimile on a reduced scale as time and other

considerations will allow. It should be made on ruled paper, if possible

on paper ruled in squares (_en quadrille_), and the relative position

of the letters to one another must be kept as far as possible. All

broken parts of letters are to be scrupulously copied (they can often be

distinguished from stone-flaws by feeling along the bottom of the groove

with a knife-blade; if that finds an even line, the groove is probably

part of a letter), and all intervals where letters have perished beyond

the copyist’s power to recover them should be measured, and by comparison

of equal intervals containing decipherable letters in other parts of

the inscription, the number of lost letters can be estimated. These

should be indicated by dots in a shaded patch. Letters, about which the

copyist is not quite certain, must be dotted or drawn in faint line. If

a stone be imperfect at the sides, and there be any means of estimating

its original breadth, the line of its true centre should be marked on

the copy. Such an observation will be invaluable to the restorer of the

text. All letters that have peculiar forms should be carefully drawn at

least once, as specimens. If the text is grouped about, among, or in any

relation to, sculptures, such relation should be indicated, even if the

whole sculpture be not drawn. Marks of punctuation or division, ligatures

of one letter with another, and ornate initials and finials, should be

looked out for and noted. On beginning a copy it is well to transcribe

first the most obviously easy parts of the inscription: they will give an

inkling of the character of the text, teach the forms of lettering used,

and accustom the eye to the inscribed surface. On finishing a copy, if

there be time, read it over, try to translate it, and in the light of the

probable translation, attack again the harder parts of the inscription.

In the case of stones with two or more texts inscribed one over the other

(as frequently happens on Roman milestones, which may be geographical

documents of great importance), a ‘squeeze’ must be got at all costs, for

an untrained copyist will make little or nothing of them, and find it

very difficult to draw an accurate hand facsimile.

3. _Literary Memoranda._

It is impossible to make too many notes of a monument, and quite easy

to make too few. The nature of the great majority of such notes must be

left to the discretion of the traveller; but concerning all antiquities,

from buildings to beads, it may be said that, at any rate, material,

colour, dimensions, condition of preservation, arrangement of parts and

character of ornament must be jotted down in the ever ready note-book.

In the case of buildings, notes giving all dimensions are especially

important, since the camera can seldom be brought to bear on all parts

and details, and there is often not opportunity to draw out a plan on

the spot. Of inscriptions certain facts must be recorded, viz., form of

the stone; condition of its surface; the material and colour; on what

sides complete, and on what not; actual dimensions; height of lettering;

general character of lettering; whether well or ill cut, plain or ornate.

Epigraphists’ notebooks are procurable in Germany and Austria containing

divisions for the notes on all these points, together with a ruled

space for the actual inscription. In the case of coins, the material,

the ancient value, the weight (if possible), the state of preservation,

and the images and superscriptions should be noted; of sculpture, the

material, the dimensions, the degree of finish, and a minute analysis

of the subject, the dress of the figure or figures, their gestures,

attributes, and so forth.

B.—CLEANING AND CONSERVATION.

The traveller will not have occasion to render more than ‘First Aid’

to objects of antiquity, _i.e._ to clean them so that their true

character may appear, and to consolidate them with a view to safe

transport. He should do the least that is absolutely necessary, leaving

all elaborate treatment to experts at home. The hints here given are

therefore elementary, and concerned mainly with portable objects. In this

connection these are best classified by the materials of which they are

made.

(_a_) _Gold._—Gold requires no immediate treatment, unless it be laid

over a core of other metal, _e.g._ copper or bronze, which has oxidised

out through cracks. This oxide can usually be removed by picking or by

sharp scaling blows with a small hammer and chisel. If it is obstinate,

use dilute hydrochloric acid laid on with a brush. The proportion of pure

acid should not be more than one part to ten of water.

(_b_) _Silver._—If in very much corroded condition, technically known as

‘dead,’ silver should be left alone. If there is only slight superficial

corrosion, soak in a solution of common salt or lemon juice, or strong

ammonia, and polish after a few hours. If there is a good deal of

chloride on the surface, but the body of the metal seems sound, put zinc

or iron in the solvent and the chlorine will pass over, leaving a powdery

surface which can be brushed clean. Silver should never be packed in a

tin box, even if wrapped up, or it will be found on arrival at home to

be stained with a brown rust, very difficult to remove. Pack in wood or

cardboard.

(_c_) _Copper and Bronze._—Both copper and bronze objects are best

cleaned, if possible, with hammer and burin. Bronze, however, which

the traveller will meet with most often, is frequently covered with

a corrosion which cannot be scaled off at once, and calls for an

acid solvent. Diluted hydrochloric (1:10) will act most quickly and

effectually, but it leaves a white oxy-chloride coat, not easily got

rid of either from the metal or the fingers of the operator, which it

stains deeply. On the whole, we recommend that (1) if the bronze be badly

cracked it be left alone; (2) if not cracked, but covered with very hard

corrosion, soaking in a weak solvent like lemon-juice be tried; and (3)

after that (or before, if the corrosion will yield to a tool at all)

every effort be made to pick or flake off the corrosion, after which the

object should be rubbed well with oil in the palms of the hands.

(_d_) _Lead and Iron_, after oiling, are both best left alone by the

traveller.

(_e_) _Stone._—The traveller will seldom or never be under the necessity

to treat stone surfaces, except in the case of inscribed marbles on

which carbonate of lime has formed, or small objects attacked by salt.

The former can be cleaned with strong acid; the latter must be soaked

in water for long periods, and when drying laid with the most important

surface downwards, so that evaporation into the air may take place

through the less important surfaces.

(_f_) _Pottery and Terra-cotta._—The same enemies, carbonate of lime and

salt, attack pottery and terra-cotta, and are met in the same way as in

the case of stone; but the hydrochloric or other acid solvent should be

weaker, and where there is colour be very cautiously used, if at all.

In packing vases, it should be remembered that if many are put into one

case without partitions, and one collapses, this will probably entail the

breaking of the lot. Large vases should be filled with tightly rammed

packing. Nothing of heavier or more solid material, _e.g._, stone, should

be put in a case with pottery.

(_g_) _Wood, Ivory, and Bone._—These materials are generally found

flaked, split, or scaly, and need consolidation before packing. The

methods most likely to be open to the traveller are: (1) if the objects

are not excessively tender, to dip them in melted vaseline, let this

set, wrap in tissue paper and pack carefully in cotton wool; (2) if the

objects are very tender or rotten with salt, to make a stiff jelly, drop

them in before it sets, and convey them home in aspic. On the way the

jelly will absorb the salt. In addition to either process, it is often

well to bind the object in every direction and part with fine thread

to keep it from splitting, or prevent the sections, if already split,

falling apart and splintering or warping in different directions. If

there is crystalline carbonate of lime on the surface of bone or ivory,

it had better not be touched except by experts.

(_h_) _Papyrus._—Papyrus needs damping and flattening out as far as

possible without breaking its fibre. Lay it between two damp towels,

and after flattening, pack it between sheets of paper in close tin

boxes, filling each box up tightly. But the traveller will be wise not

to try too much. As soon as the edges of his roll or fragment cease to

be brittle to the touch he had best leave the papyrus as it is without

further unrolling, and pack very carefully away.

(_j_) _Glass, Glazed Objects, Pastes, Amber, Various Compositions._—None

of these should the traveller try to treat. Glass must be left wholly

alone if in a flaking state; other objects, if flaky or powdery, will, at

least, be no worse for having been dipped in melted vaseline than they

would be in any case, after transport.

No general hints can be usefully given about either the methods of

discovering antiquities or those of detecting forgeries. It is not

supposed that the travellers here addressed will undertake regular

excavations. Should they propose to do so, they will need special

training and much more elaborate instruction. Mr. Petrie’s ‘Methods and

Aims’ will supply much of the latter, but the tyro excavator will not

have Mr. Petrie’s success without serving a long apprenticeship.

The above hints will serve for the traveller who takes antiquities by the

way and in the day’s work, having other objects more in view. For him the

following list of necessities will suffice:—

1. Long extension camera and all photographic requisites, including, if

possible, a stand and frame for overhead photography (_v._ p. 52).

2. ‘Squeeze’ paper, brushes with hand-straps or curved handles, and tin

cylinders for carrying the paper and moulds; heel-ball, sealing-wax,

tin-foil, beeswax.

3. Planning and drawing outfit.

4. Notebooks ruled _en quadrille_, magnifying-glass and hand-mirror.

5. Small hammer and chisels for metal work, hydrochloric acid, ammonia,

emery-paper, tissue paper, burin, plate brushes, sheet zinc, vaseline,

cotton-wool (_not_ raw cotton-waste with hard seeds in it).

VIII.

MEDICAL HINTS.

_By the late WILLIAM HENRY CROSSE, M.D._

Revised and brought up to date by ANDREW BALFOUR, C.B., C.M.G., M.D.

The following hints, which were compiled by the late Dr. W. H. Crosse,

formerly the experienced medical adviser of the Royal Niger Company,

based upon previous editions of this work, have been edited so as to

bring them up to date. A good deal remains as Dr. Crosse wrote it, but

several sections have been almost entirely re-written, in order to bring

them into line with modern views. New sections have been introduced and

there have been numerous additions and corrections.

INTRODUCTION.

In the following pages the chief emphasis has been laid upon the care of

the health in the tropics; but it must be remembered, that whilst by far

the greater proportion of travellers go to the tropics, most of these

hints for the preservation of health apply equally well for all climates.

Though many subjects have been briefly dealt with, certain matters have

been rather more fully written up, such as the treatment of wounds. It

is, in the author’s opinion, so important that the traveller should

thoroughly understand what is meant by ‘surgical cleanliness’ that the

usual methods observed by surgeons to ensure it have been plainly set

forth. The author, of course, understands that in many cases it would be

quite impossible to carry out the instructions in every detail, but it is

hoped that a thorough knowledge of the principles underlying the correct

treatment of wounds will assist the traveller in doing the best possible

for his patient in any emergency, and under even the most unfavourable

circumstances.

It is hardly necessary to observe that travellers in remote regions, and

especially in tropical climates, are much more exposed to physical ills

and diseases than most residents at home, and that they are more likely

to be placed beyond the reach of skilled medical and surgical aid when

it is most required. It is chiefly for the use of the non-professional

traveller that the following pages have been written, and with this aim

in view the symptoms and general treatment of the diseases and injuries

with which he is most likely to be brought in contact are dealt with in

simple, non-technical language.

Every traveller should supply himself with either Bernard Myer’s ‘Atlas

of First Aid Treatment’ or Hastings Young’s ‘First Aid to the Sick,’

books of general utility. Travellers visiting countries with hot

climates will find Garry’s ‘Some Factors Influencing Health in Tropical

and Sub-tropical Climates’ a useful book, despite a few errors, while

the small ‘Primer of Tropical Hygiene’ by Colonel R. J. Blackham, is a

valuable guide to things hygienic as is Professor Simpson’s ‘Maintenance

of Health in the Tropics.’

A few books may be mentioned as specially suitable for those travelling

in the countries with which they deal, such as ‘Hints for Residents and

Travellers in Persia’ by A. R. Neligan, ‘Health Preservation in West

Africa’ by J. C. Ryan, ‘Hygiene and Disease in Palestine’ by Masterman,

and ‘The Epidemics of Mauritius’ by Anderson.

Those who read German will find the ‘Gesundheitlicher Ratgeber für

Auswanderer,’ issued under the auspices of the Institut für Schiffs- und

Tropenkrankheiten in Hamburg, of considerable service, and if they intend

visiting South America it is worth noting that from the same source a

series of small books to guide the traveller in different parts of that

continent will soon be forthcoming. This series will also include works

on Mexico, Angola and Siberia. These German guides are obtainable from L.

Friederichsen & Co., Hamburg.

Persons who intend to travel should undergo a thorough medical

examination, in order to ascertain if they are likely to be able to stand

the fatigues, exposures and privations to which they will probably be

subjected.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.—DIAGRAM SHOWING SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL ORGANS OF

THE BODY, AND THE COURSE OF THE MAIN BLOOD-VESSELS.]

Most people of good constitutions and regular temperate habits can, with

care, maintain a good state of health in the tropics, and many of those

who have been by no means strong at home are able with some extra caution

to do well even in the hottest climates.

The intending traveller should attend a course of ambulance lectures in

order to prepare himself for the responsibilities which he will have to

undertake. As much time as possible should be devoted to discussing with

some professional friend the uses, correct doses, and proper methods of

prescribing and combining the drugs which are to be taken on the journey,

and in becoming familiar with the position of the principal bones,

vessels and other important structures of the human body.

A traveller should understand how to use the clinical thermometer, how to

twist or tie a bleeding vessel, how to use the hypodermic syringe and the

syphon stomach tube. He should learn how to cleanse a wound, how to treat

a case of snake-bite, and should know the best way in which to set a

broken limb. Such things are not easily learnt from books, and experience

alone will give the necessary skill and confidence. Many valuable lives

have been saved by travellers who have fairly mastered the rudiments of

medical and surgical treatment, and who have been able in an emergency

to give the necessary drugs, administer an antidote, or to stop severe

bleeding.

The ideal traveller is a temperate man, with a sound constitution, a

digestion like an ostrich, a good temper, and no race prejudices. He is

capable of looking after details, _e.g._, seeing that drinking water has

_really_ been boiled, and is willing to take advice from those who have

made journeys in countries similar to the one in which he is about to

travel.

A traveller should be supplied with suitable housing, food and clothing,

and should have a proper supply of medicines, dressings, and medical

comforts.

In selecting the drugs with which the traveller should be provided before

leaving home care should be taken to see that only reliable products be

purchased. In the tropics, and in exploration generally, the medical

outfit is subjected to very severe tests, and it is a mistaken policy to

economise on medicines. The latter should be as portable as possible and

be properly packed.

_Risks to Health in a Tropical Climate._

Seeing that these hints will be chiefly required by travellers in

tropical or sub-tropical climates, it may be well to indicate some of

the chief risks which are to be met with in warm climates, and the best

methods of meeting them.

It will be noted that any detailed reference to questions of outfit, such

as the supply of proper food or clothing, is omitted, as these matters

have been fully dealt with in ‘Hints on Outfit,’ published by the Royal

Geographical Society uniformly with this ‘Hints to Travellers,’ and it is

understood that this work will be consulted by all who read these hints.

_Chill._—The most prominent feature of a tropical climate is undoubtedly

heat, and yet the greatest risk arises not so much from excessive

high temperature as from a risk of chill, which is due mainly to the

excessive perspiration which takes place. This must be guarded against

by the use of proper clothing, the most important point being that

the underclothing should be partly of absorbent material. For general

use cotton is best, and the vest or undershirt should in the tropics

be of the Aertex Cellular type. It is a mistake to wear wool next the

skin in hot countries, for it soon gets sodden with perspiration and

is irritating. A light flannel shirt worn over the open cotton mesh is

probably the best arrangement though a mixture of wool and cotton may be

employed for the shirting. This question is fully dealt with in ‘Hints

on Outfit.’ It is particularly important to avoid sudden changes of

temperature, and if exposed to the cooling sea breeze, special care must

be taken as to proper clothing. Parke laid great stress on the importance

of avoiding chills, draughts, or wettings. He remarked “In crossing

Equatorial Africa the Relief Expedition found that every wetting meant

an attack of fever.” The sea breeze, which is so refreshing and cool, by

checking the perspiration, frequently acts as the exciting cause of an

attack of fever. There is special liability to chill and subsequent fever

when ascending an eminence, as the exertion causes profuse perspiration,

and the cool breeze encountered on arrival at the top is very likely to

produce ill effects.

On completing a day’s journey, the underclothing, at least, should be

changed without delay, and the skin should be well dried by the free use

of a rough towel. If at all possible a warm bath should be taken.

The cummerbund is a useful article of clothing, especially for men in the

evening. It does away with the need for a waistcoat, which often proves

hot and uncomfortable, and yet provides the necessary safeguard against

chill to the abdominal organs.

A word as to the use of a flannel cholera belt, about which opinions

differ. Experience in many tropical countries leads the writer to

recommend its use at night, and at night only. Even so, it is unnecessary

and uncomfortable in places where the nights are invariably hot and

steamy, and is chiefly of value in dry, desert climates where there is a

great difference between the day and night temperatures.

_Effects of the Sun._—It is difficult to overestimate the importance of

the protection of the head from the direct rays of the sun. It is best,

where possible, to avoid going out in the heat of the day, but where this

is necessary the head should be protected by a suitable helmet, which

should be light in weight and colour, which should be ventilated, and

which should have a good protection for the back of the head. A large

green leaf inside the helmet might be an additional protection, and a

sun umbrella should also be used wherever practicable. A helmet should

as a rule be worn when going out during the day-time in the tropics.

Sometimes, however, the helmet is found very troublesome, as, for

example, by the sportsman in the bush. He may then have recourse to a

double Terai hat, or even to an ordinary wide-brimmed felt hat provided

he inserts a crumpled-up handkerchief in its crown. This will usually

afford a reasonable protection.

_Errors of Diet._—The lassitude which is often so much felt by Europeans

resident in the tropics too frequently tempts them to the abuse of

alcoholic stimulants and highly-spiced foods. The habit is a most

pernicious one, for such indulgence is one of the most fruitful causes

of the permanent ill-health so often wrongly attributed to the mere

residence in a hot climate. There is no doubt that food should be taken

with greater moderation in hot than in cold climates; heat-producing

articles of diet, such as fat, should be taken in far smaller quantity,

but an ample supply of vegetables is essential. The meals should never be

heavy, especially during the heat of the day, and intervals of about four

hours should always separate consecutive meals.

Cooking should always be conducted with great care in the tropics, for

the stomach and liver are less able to bear any extra strain, such as

would be induced by the attempt to digest imperfectly-cooked food.

Parasites are often introduced into the system by insufficiently cooked

food.

Natural milk must be boiled; condensed milk should be mixed with boiled

water.

Excess in the use of alcoholic stimulants is one of the most fatal errors

into which the tropical resident can fall, and their habitual use as

beverages is totally unnecessary, tea, coffee and cocoa being the best

beverages for ordinary use. A small supply of brandy, champagne, and port

wine may be of service in certain cases of illness, but they are better

regarded as belonging strictly to the medical equipment.

Avoid native drinks, as they will probably have been diluted with dirty

water, or prepared in unclean vessels.

Great moderation in the use of alcohol is quite as necessary in arctic as

in tropical climates. In the latter no alcohol should be taken till the

sun has set, and even then the quantity should be strictly limited. There

is no reason why a glass of light beer, a whisky and soda, or a little

light wine should not be drunk with the evening meal. Alcohol taken at

this time often promotes appetite and aids digestion, but alcohol between

meals is bad, chiefly perhaps because the habit of exceeding the daily

allowance is thereby apt to be engendered. It is largely a question of

self-control, and it must be remembered that in the tropics self-control,

so far as drinks are concerned, is very apt to weaken. Apart from the

question of its habitual use alcohol is often of great service as a

restorative, as, for example, after a fatiguing march, and especially if

one has got wet and chilled. Champagne is possibly the best form to take

on such occasions and it should be used as an apéritif or drunk along

with food.

_Risks due to Drinking Water._—The use of water for drinking purposes

must be attended with great care in all tropical climates. As the water

of the lakes, streams and pools of these countries usually contains

a large proportion of impurities, and the germs or parasites of many

diseases, it should be strained and subsequently boiled before being used.

As, however, it is not always possible or convenient to incur the delay

of boiling the drinking water and allowing it to cool, it is advisable

that a _reliable_ filter should be taken.

Most filters—charcoal or otherwise—are merely death-traps, as the

accumulation of germs and injurious matter within the filtering substance

soon renders the water more dangerous than if unfiltered. There are,

however, a few filters which, with ordinary care in cleansing, are in

themselves efficient safeguards. The most highly recommended of these

are the Pasteur Chamberland and the Doulton filters. In any case, spare

filtering candles should be taken, and these should be cleaned and boiled

at least every three days. It is recommended that the filter-makers

should be consulted immediately the probable requirements of any

expedition are known. It should be remembered that no filter combines

rapid delivery of water with efficient sterilization. A mistake commonly

made is to boil water and then filter it. This should never be done.

The drinking of very cold water, to which there is great temptation when

one is exhausted by prolonged heat and copious perspiration, should

be carefully avoided; thirst often induces tropical residents to have

recourse to iced water, which is always apt to be dangerous if taken

when one is heated. The drinking of copious draughts of water is also a

habit to be deprecated; it certainly weakens the muscular energy, and as

the water is rapidly lost by perspiration, the feeling of exhaustion is

increased. Hot or cold weak tea, without milk or sugar, is one of the

least injurious of all beverages.

_Precautions on the Voyage._

The traveller should endeavour to land in a perfectly healthy condition,

and to this end he should on the voyage out take plenty of exercise,

drink little or no alcohol, be moderate as to diet, and avoid much meat

and rich dishes. Neglect of these obvious rules frequently ends in the

traveller arriving in a flabby, bilious condition, in which state he is

predisposed to attacks of malaria, dysentery, and other diseases.

Constipation is frequent at sea, and a seidlitz powder, a dose of fruit

salt, or one or two cascara tabloids may be necessary. If constipation is

severe, then one or two four-grain blue pills should be taken at bedtime,

followed in the early morning by a seidlitz powder or some other saline

aperient.

In order to avoid chill the traveller should be properly clothed during

the evening or when there is a cool breeze, and should not stand in

draughty doorways and passages on board. If he is proceeding to a country

where there is endemic malaria he should begin his course of prophylactic

quinine on ship-board, because even a single night spent ashore in

a malarious locality may result in his acquiring infection. It is

therefore advisable to begin taking quinine in the manner described on p.

207 at least two days before arrival at the place of disembarkation.

What is true of the journey out is of even greater importance on the

voyage home. There is a serious danger of illness owing to chills

contracted on board ship when leaving a hot climate. Quinine should be

systematically taken as recommended on p. 208.

GENERAL HINTS.

_Never take a cold bath in the Tropics unless ordered to do so by a

doctor._—In the case of persons who have already suffered from many

attacks of fever, dysentery, or any disease of the liver or other

important organs, warm bathing should alone be used. Bathing should

never be resorted to during the period of digestion, _i.e._, three to

four hours after meals. Wear warm clothes at night. Avoid the direct

rays of the sun. Do not take too much animal food. Never begin work on

an empty stomach. Never neglect a slight attack of fever or diarrhœa.

Keep the bowels gently opened—once a day is quite enough—but avoid strong

purgatives.

_Vaccination._

It is essential that all the members of an expedition should be

re-vaccinated if they have not suffered from small-pox or been vaccinated

within two years. A proper supply of vaccine should be carried on the

journey. Heat and bright sunlight are very detrimental to vaccine lymph.

Hence the proper transport of such lymph in hot climates is a matter of

great importance and by no means always easy to arrange. Where a thermos

flask is available it may be used for storing and carrying the capillary

tubes, or they may be wrapped up in green leaves and inserted into a

hollow bamboo, the ends of which are closed with cotton wool.

_Inoculation._

Owing to the prevalence of typhoid and paratyphoid fevers in hot

countries it is essential that all persons, and more especially young

adults, proceeding to tropical countries should undergo preventive

inoculation. Two injections of the so-called triple vaccine, at ten days’

interval, are necessary, and both should be given shortly before leaving

or, if arrangements can be made, one or both may be given on ship-board.

_Isolation._

On the outbreak of an infectious complaint, such as small-pox (which is

very common amongst negro carriers), the sufferer should be promptly

isolated, and one or more attendants should take charge of the case and

not be allowed to come to camp. It is wise to select as attendants those

who have either had the disease, or who are protected (as by vaccination)

against it.

In Nigeria it was found most convenient to build grass huts, which were

burnt to the ground, together with the clothing and bedding of the

patient and attendants, on the termination of the outbreak.

All vessels which are not destroyed must be boiled thoroughly. The

motions, etc., of patients suffering from typhoid fever, cholera and

dysentery should be disinfected, preferably by boiling, or, better still,

destroyed by fire.

_Transmission of Infection._

The traveller should remember that of late years the rôle of the healthy

human “carrier” in the transmission of many communicable diseases has

been established. This is true of such diseases as enteric fever and

cholera, and when engaging servants, porters, and camp followers it is

important to inquire into their previous history and, if necessary, to

make certain that they do not harbour the specific organisms of such

diseases.

DISEASES AND THEIR PREVENTION AND TREATMENT.

In the tropics, as elsewhere, the diseases to which the traveller is

liable are due to widely differing causes, but in hot countries climatic

conditions and parasites play a predominant part. Insects are very

frequently to blame for the transference of the latter from the sick

to the sound, both insects which are not themselves parasitic on man,

_e.g._, the mosquito and the tsetse fly, and those which make man their

host, _e.g._, lice and fleas.

It is useful for the traveller to bear diseases in mind from the

standpoint of their etiology, as in this way he can more readily grasp

the measures necessary for their prevention.

Accordingly, the following classification is given, merely as a guide,

together with a few examples. The diseases themselves, for the sake

of convenience of reference, are grouped alphabetically and are not

classified in any way.

_Table of Diseases Classed according to Etiology._

A.—_Parasitic._

(i.) Due to “contact” either direct or through the agency of clothes,

bedding, etc. Also due to direct inoculation through the skin or mucous

membrane.

_Examples_: Many skin diseases, venereal diseases, small-pox, tetanus,

and blood-poisoning (septicæmia).

(ii.) Due to “mouth to mouth” infection, through the agency of so-called

“droplet” infection, expectoration, coughing, sneezing, etc.

_Examples_: Influenza, pneumonia, and pneumonic plague.

(iii.) Due to “droplet” infection, as above, or to infected scales from

the skin, or to infected discharges from the nose, throat, or ear.

_Examples_: Measles, scarlet fever, small-pox, chicken-pox, diphtheria.

(iv.) Due to excremental infection through the agency of water, food,

flies, fingers, dust, and soil.

_Examples_: Enteric (typhoid) fever, dysentery, diarrhœa, cholera, worm

infections of many kinds.

(v.) Due to inoculation through the bites of insects, or the entry

through skin abrasions of the infected excreta or infected crushed

tissues of insects rubbed or scratched into these lesions.

_Examples_: Malaria, yellow fever, tick fever, sleeping sickness,

filariasis, relapsing fever, typhus fever, bubonic plague.

(vi.) Due to invasion of the body by insects in their adult or larval

stages.

_Examples_: Chigger, myiasis of various kinds.

B.—_Non-Parasitic._

(i.) Due to climatic conditions.

_Examples_: Heat stroke, diarrhœa in some instances, constipation in many

cases, rheumatism, prickly heat, chilblains.

(ii.) Due to errors in diet.

_Examples_: Diarrhœa, beri-beri, scurvy, sprue(?).

(iii.) Due to poisons.

_Examples_: Scorpion sting, snake-bite, vegetable poisons.

(iv.) Miscellaneous.

_Examples_: Bed-sores, epilepsy, apoplexy, concussion of the brain, hay

fever, and other conditions into the cause of which a mechanical element

frequently enters.

It will be seen that some of these diseases, such as small-pox and

diarrhœa, come under more than one heading, but this does not detract

from the general utility of the above classification.

_Bed-sore._

When a patient is confined to his bed for a long time it is necessary

to support the lower part of the back on something soft, such as a pad

of wool, or an extra pillow, in order to prevent the formation of a

bed-sore; pillows should also be placed under the hips and heels.

To harden the skin it is well to rub it with alcohol or to treat it with

oil or white of an egg three parts, and spirits one part; zinc ointment

is also useful for this purpose.

Besides pressure, the most frequent cause of bed-sores is constant

moisture from the passage of urine and motions and consequent damping of

the sheets. Great care must be taken to thoroughly dry the back after any

evacuation; the lower part of the back should be dusted with a powder of

boric acid and zinc oxide.

If a bed-sore is present the patient should lie on a circular pad with a

hole in the middle, to take pressure off the bed-sore. The sore should

be thoroughly cleaned twice a day with some antiseptic lotion, such as

chinosol or permanganate, and subsequently dressed with zinc ointment or

vaseline.

If the bed-sore is on the back, the patient should lie if possible on

each side alternately, to relieve the pressure.

_Beri-beri._

In most cases this is a disease due to some deficiency in the dietary,

which leads to a form of what is called peripheral neuritis. The name is

possibly derived from a Cingalese word signifying “I cannot.”

_Symptoms._—Weakness of the legs and digestive troubles, abnormal

sensations in the legs, frequently associated with swelling. The gait

alters, and the arms and fingers may be affected. The condition is one of

spreading paralysis, and in bad cases the heart is affected. In so-called

wet beri-beri the patient becomes bloated as in dropsy, while in dry

beri-beri he wastes away until he is little better than a skeleton. There

is a “squatting test” which may enable one to recognize the disease at

an early stage. The patient, with his hands on the top of his head, is

unable to assume a squatting position and to rise from it unaided. If he

is squatting and has to rise he accomplishes the act by climbing, as it

were, up his own legs.

_Prophylaxis._—Avoid overcrowding, as this seems in some cases to

predispose to the disease. Give the yeast extract known as “Marmite,”

which is supplied in small cubes one-quarter ounce in weight. One

should be taken twice a week, either alone or with bread or biscuit, or

dissolved in warm water in the form of a soup. Lentils, other legumes,

and oatmeal are useful. Eggs and fresh meat, when obtainable, are very

valuable.

_Treatment._—This is chiefly dietetic. Give yeast, two ounces daily,

along with milk and sugar, or marmite in one-cube doses twice a day. Eggs

are specially useful, while fresh milk, legumes, and nourishing soups are

all indicated. Only small quantities of food should be given at a time.

Rest in bed is very important, and the patient must be careful when he

is allowed to get up owing to the danger of heart failure. Tonics are

required during convalescence.

_Blackwater Fever._

Blackwater fever is probably a pernicious complication of malarial

fever, and derives its name from the colour of the urine. It must be

remembered that dark-coloured urine is usual in all fevers; it is scanty

during the height of the fever, especially if there is much sweating.

If, however, it is obviously “bloody,” the case is more grave, but as a

rule it is only men broken down in health, and those who have resided in

blackwater countries, _e.g._, Tropical Africa, parts of India, the West

Indies, etc., for at least a year, especially those who have taken their

prophylactic quinine irregularly, who suffer from this complication.

The reason for the occurrence of this condition is not fully known. Some

have ascribed the symptoms entirely to the taking of quinine, but as the

fever often occurs where no quinine has been given this is impossible. At

the same time it appears likely that in certain cases of malaria, owing

perhaps to some idiosyncrasy, quinine may help to bring on the symptoms.

It is possible that chill occurring during the course of a fever may lead

to the production of blackwater fever. Those who have had one attack are

particularly liable to a recurrence, and after two consecutive attacks

return to a temperate climate is required.

_Symptoms._—In addition to the ordinary symptoms of malarial fever, the

urine is dark, blood-like, and eventually porter-coloured; it is often

scanty, and may become entirely suppressed. The skin is yellow, often

a bright orange, there is frequent vomiting, often hiccough, and the

vomited matter is usually of a green colour.

_Prophylaxis._—With our present knowledge all that can be said is that

malaria prophylaxis is also the method to prevent blackwater. Such

prophylaxis, so far as quinine is concerned, must be properly carried

out. Those who take quinine regularly, and in sufficient doses, do not

contract blackwater fever. Chill and excesses of all kinds must be

avoided.

_Treatment._—Much the same treatment should be adopted as that fully

described later for malaria. It is especially important to give an

aperient at the beginning, and perhaps five grains of calomel is the best

form. In every case, no matter how slight, it is essential to ensure,

wherever possible, absolute rest in bed and skilled and careful nursing.

If it can possibly be avoided a blackwater patient should never be moved

from the place where he is taken ill. So long as he has a bed to lie on,

a roof to cover him, and some sensible person to look after him who will

carry out the doctor’s orders, he should be treated on the spot. It is

better, when it can be arranged, for the nurse to go to the patient than

for the patient to come to the nurse.

The chief aim should be to support the strength by fluid nourishment, and

to secure free action of the kidneys. The former should be maintained

by fluid nourishment given in small quantities at frequent intervals,

such as milk, Plasmon, Benger’s food, Allenbury’s foods, invalid Bovril,

Brand’s fever food, or Brand’s essence, Maggi’s consommé. A little

Plasmon added to any of the meat preparations would be useful, while

raisin tea is a valuable preparation.

In order to maintain free action of the kidneys, plenty of fluid should

be given, such as barley-water made from Robinson’s prepared barley,

flavoured slightly with lime-juice or lemons. Weak tea is useful.

Diuretics which stimulate the kidneys must be avoided. The most effective

method of flushing the kidneys is by giving saline injections by the

bowel, but these, as a rule, can be administered only by a medical man

or by a trained nurse under a doctor’s supervision. It may, however, be

stated that the amount usually given is six ounces of physiological salt

solution (seven and a half grains of sodium chloride to the ounce of warm

water). This is administered every hour, or even oftener, if necessary,

in bad cases. In mild cases enemata every four or six hours will suffice.

Other measures are the application of poultices or hot fomentations to

the loins when suppression threatens, or when there is severe lumbar

pain. Diaphoretics, so long as they do not depress the heart, are useful,

and so is frequent sponging. Cold applications to the head and especially

behind the ears alleviate headache.

The question of giving or of withholding quinine is an important one, but

recent work on the subject indicates that in the absence of a medical man

who can carry out blood examinations, it is advisable to give quinine as

in the case of malaria.