The Lake Regions of Central Africa: A Picture of Exploration, Vol. 1Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
History
The Lake Regions of Central Africa: A Picture of Exploration, Vol. 1
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Africa, Central -- Description and travel
The principal diseases of the valley are severe ulcerations and fevers,
generally of a tertian type. The “Mkunguru” begins with coldness in the
toes and finger-tips; a frigid shiver seems to creep up the legs,
followed by pains in the shoulders, severe frontal headache, hot eyes,
and a prostration and irritability of mind and body. This preliminary
lasts for one to three hours, when nausea ushers in the hot stage: the
head burns, the action of the heart becomes violent, thirst rages, and a
painful weight presses upon the eyeballs: it is often accompanied by a
violent cough and irritation. Strange visions, as in delirium, appear to
the patient, and the excitement of the brain is proved by unusual
loquacity. When the fit passes off with copious perspiration the head is
often affected, the ears buzz, and the limbs are weak. If the patient
attempts to rise suddenly, he feels a dizziness, produced apparently by
a gush of bile along the liver duct: want of appetite, sleeplessness and
despondency, and a low fever, evidenced by hot pulses, throbbing
temples, and feet painfully swollen, with eruptions of various kinds,
and ulcerated mouth, usher in the cure. This fever yields easily to mild
remedies, but it is capable of lasting three weeks.
A multitude of roads, whose point of departure is the coast, form a
triangle and converge at the “Makutaniro,” or junction-place, in Central
Uzaramo. The route whose several stations have been described is one of
the main lines running from Kaole and Bagamoyo, in a general southwest
direction, till it falls into the great trunk road which leads directly
west from Mbuamaji. It is divided into thirteen caravan stages, but a
well-girt walker will accomplish the distance in a week.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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