nt sickness. I have often
remarked this effluvium in sickly spots, and can not help believing but
that it has some connection with fever, though I am quite aware of Dr.
MacWilliams's unsuccessful efforts to discover sulphureted hydrogen, by
the most delicate tests, in the Niger expedition.

I had plenty of employment, for, besides attending to the severer cases,
I had perpetual calls on my attention. The town contained at least 7000
inhabitants, and every one thought that he might come, and at least look
at me. In talking with some of the more intelligent in the evenings, the
conversation having turned from inquiries respecting eclipses of the sun
and moon to that other world where Jesus reigns, they let me know that
my attempts to enlighten them had not been without some small effect.
"Many of the children," said they, "talk about the strange things you
bring to their ears, but the old men show a little opposition by saying,
'Do we know what he is talking about?'" Ntlaria and others complain of
treacherous memories, and say, "When we hear words about other things,
we hold them fast; but when we hear you tell much more wonderful things
than any we have ever heard before, we don't know how it is, they run
away from our hearts." These are the more intelligent of my Makololo
friends. On the majority the teaching produces no appreciable effect;
they assent to the truth with the most perplexing indifference, adding,
"But we don't know," or, "We do not understand." My medical intercourse
with them enabled me to ascertain their moral status better than a mere
religious teacher could do. They do not attempt to hide the evil, as
men often do, from their spiritual instructors; but I have found it
difficult to come to a conclusion on their character. They sometimes
perform actions remarkably good, and sometimes as strangely the
opposite. I have been unable to ascertain the motive for the good, or
account for the callousness of conscience with which they perpetrate the
bad. After long observation, I came to the conclusion that they are just
such a strange mixture of good and evil as men are every where
else. There is not among them an approach to that constant stream of
benevolence flowing from the rich to the poor which we have in England,
nor yet the unostentatious attentions which we have among our own poor
to each other. Yet there are frequent instances of genuine kindness and
liberality, as well as actions of an opposite charac