general weakness is ascribed by some to maize being the common
food, it shows itself in weakness of bowels and choleraic purging. This
may be owing to bad water, of which there is no scarcity, but it is so
impregnated with dead vegetable matter as to have the colour of tea.
Irritable ulcers fasten on any part abraded by accident, and it seems to
be a spreading fungus, for the matter settling on any part near becomes
a fresh centre of propagation. The vicinity of the ulcer is very tender,
and it eats in frightfully if not allowed rest. Many slaves die of it,
and its periodical discharges of bloody ichor makes me suspect it to be
a development of fever. I have found lunar caustic useful: a plaister of
wax, and a little finely-ground sulphate of copper is used by the Arabs,
and so is cocoa-nut oil and butter. These ulcers are excessively
intractable, there is no healing them before they eat into the bone,
especially on the shins.

Rheumatism is also common, and it cuts the natives off. The traders fear
these diseases, and come to a stand if attacked, in order to use rest in
the cure. "Taema," or Tape-worm, is frequently met with, and no remedy
is known among the Arabs and natives for it.

[Searching in his closely-written pocket-books we find many little
mementoes of his travels; such, for instance, as two or three tsetse
flies pressed between the leaves of one book; some bees, some leaves and
moths in another, but, hidden away in the pocket of the note-book which
Livingstone used during the longest and most painful illness he ever
underwent lies a small scrap of printed paper which tells a tale in its
own simple way. On one side there is written in his well-known hand:--]

"Turn over and see a drop of comfort found when suffering
from irritable eating ulcers on the feet in Manyuema,
August, 1870."

[On the reverse we see that the scrap was evidently snipped off a list
of books advertised at the end of some volume which, with the tea and
other things sent to Ujiji, had reached him before setting out on this
perilous journey. The "drop of comfort" is as follows:--]

"A NARRATIVE OF AN EXPEDITION TO THE ZAMBESI AND ITS
TRIBUTARIES,

"And the discovery of Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa.

"_Fifth Thousand. With Map and Illustrations_. 8vo. 21s.

"'Few achievements in our day have made a greater impression
than that of the adventurous missionary who unaided crossed the
Continent of Equ