Under the head of “All other Diseases” is included one “lethargus,” a disease which, as far as I am aware, is altogether confined to the native population, “more particularly to the Kossohs and Congos tribes.” It is not restricted to any particular period of life, as old and young are equally liable to it. It is purely a disease of the brain and nervous system, generally fatal, except when seen in the very early stages. As it is generally met with, the patient sleeps continually, even when standing up, and becomes perfectly incapable of any exertion; the sufferer will even fall asleep while being fed. I have seen them last in this state for months, and gradually die of inanition from want of a sufficiency of food to support life. I have tried all kinds of treatment, but cannot recommend any more likely to be beneficial than a prolonged slight salivation, if you can meet the case in the inflammatory stage or that previous to the sleeping state just alluded to.
This and leprosy are the only diseases met with here from which the European is exempt.
Special Remarks.—Of seven of the eight cases of syphilis (native), Hottentots were the subjects. Here, as elsewhere, they copy European vices very readily. The Kafirs adhere to their own vices, but are more slow in copying European manners and habits, good or evil.
I have met with one decided case of scrofula among the Zulus, and one only.
The ages of infants are reckoned by moons, but adult Kafirs (as the rule) do not know how old they are; the ages given are therefore only surmised, and cannot be depended on.
The tendency of disease among the Kafirs is to collapse and paralysis. No year goes round without deaths from cold and wet, which they bear less well than European settlers. They are apt to sink under any serious form of disease.
Flesh wounds heal well, causing less constitutional disturbance than among Europeans, but fractured bones do not so soon re-unite. I have found lime water, a pint or more given daily, promote their union. Lime is scarce here, and the shells of eggs are correspondingly thin.
Lung disease is more frequent among natives than white settlers, unless the latter bring the seeds of disease with them; but I doubt whether it is true phthisis. I suspect that the lungs of both natives and settlers are more liable to become hepatized or otherwise disorganized than tuberculated. In examining the lungs of cattle who have died of lung sickness, I have found large portions of lung degenerated into an impervious muscle-like substance resembling beef, while in other portions the disease has shown itself to be of so anemic a character as to have proceeded without much pause to suppuration. I believe that in this climate, subjects of phthisis, who had only small tubercles in their lungs, would find their further development arrested; indeed this has been, in many cases, proved to have occurred.
The lung disease, called lung sickness, in cattle, does not, with regard to the organ attacked, affect human beings, but the tendency of the present race of mankind is to anemic rather than acutely inflammatory diseases. The most destructive modern diseases, influenza, cholera, and diphtheria, are of an anemic character; other diseases are now, more than formerly, inclined to assume this character. It is not that medicine and doctors, but that human constitutions, vary. The rule laid down by Pinel that bleeding confirms mania is good now; but 50 or 70 years ago, as, perhaps, 50 or 70 years hence, more exceptional cases did and may again occur than are at present met with. {55}
The mortality from fever will be seen to have been great; but of the seven deaths recorded, six came into the hospital in a dying state. One, admitted November 25th, died five hours after admission; another, admitted at noon, December 11th, died at half-past four a.m. next morning; another, admitted on the 5th, died on the 6th; another, admitted on September 19th, died on the 20th; other two rallied by the administration of wine, sago, &c., but died from two to five days after admission, again sinking. They received shelter and attention, and had what chance there was of recovery; and some others, beyond all reasonable expectation, recovered. The number of Kafir and druggist-doctored patients thrown upon my hands in a moribund state is great. Of the cases of fever that I attended throughout, most did well. The hospital has been occupied somewhat more than three years and a half, but I have held office as district surgeon in the service of Government eight years and a half, and I speak of my experience during the whole term of such service.
In giving names to complaints, I have not set down diarrhœa or even tænia, of which many instances have occurred, but these instances have been incidental or symptomatic. Tænia has been discovered and treated in cases of patients who had wounds, &c., and this frequently. There is no complaint so generally prevalent among both natives and settlers. The tapeworm of South Africa is about two-fifths in width† narrower than that of Europe. The most effective treatment has been 1 1⁄2 oz. sp. terebinth, early in the morning, and one drop of croton oil, or a dose of other aperient medicine, four or five hours after, nisi prius soluta sit alvus. A less dose than 1 1⁄2 oz. more disturbs the system than this quantity, and fails to act. I procured some ethereal extract of male fern in one case, of which I gave one scruple early in the morning, and a black draught some hours after. It caused no nausea or other apparent constitutional disturbance, and a piece of tapeworm was expelled, still alive, which measured 22 feet long. Turpentine generally expels them dead.
The fracture that ended fatally was a compound fracture of the left thigh, and compound comminuted fracture of the tibia and fibula of the right leg, from a waggon accident. He sunk at the end of two days, never rallying from the shock to his system, and refusing to submit to the not very hopeful operation of amputation of the more seriously injured limb. I have had two cases of injury among the aborigines in which amputation was necessary, one a little above the ancle, the other four inches above the knee. In the latter case the leg had been torn off by the machinery of a flour mill, the knee stripped of its integuments, and the muscles above the knee stretched and contused, so that I felt myself obliged to operate high up, lest a second amputation should become requisite. The case occurred a few months ago. Both cases did well. I have represented my wish in both cases that an artificial leg and foot should be sent for to England, as it would be a convenience to the parties, and also have a good sanitary and social effect upon the natives. The cost of the cork or other artificial two legs, black imitation toes inclusive, would not, I should think, exceed 30l. Their aversion to operations necessary to save life would thus be in some measure overcome or lessened.
The natives who have become Christians evince some of the uncomfortableness and maladroitness that are incidental to a state of transition, but, perhaps, less than might have been expected. The premises I go upon are, perhaps, scanty and insufficient, but I am inclined to think that among Christian Kafirs more children die in infancy than among the unchristianized natives. This is not to be depended upon, nor can I, generally speaking, say much that is definite upon the subject of physical or other differences between Christian and other natives.
The natives hitherto, as the rule, have not shown the appetence for alcohol which the North American Indians so early, and so fatally for themselves, acquired. There are cases of elephantiasis among them; they are subject to skin diseases. These and other trifling diseases or cases of injury seldom appear at the hospital, or only as accompaniments of injury or other disease.
Prior to the completion and occupation of Grey’s hospital, a row of cottages was rented as a hospital; prior to this the gaol and hospital were under one roof.
Change of Diet and irregular Habits.—There is one very striking difference between the semi-civilized native and the one fresh from his original habits and mode of life. The one is more subject to inflammatory diseases than the other, from which the former does not so readily recover as the latter. Wounds and injuries of a very serious character readily admit of reparation; for instance, a native falls on a stake, which penetrated (by the side of the “sphincter ani”) the bladder; he walked 10 miles, and arrived at hospital with a pendulous coagulum at the mouth of the urethra. The catheter was used; urine and blood escaped, and continued to flow for a day or two; in a week he returned home quite well.
Civilization increases the proneness to Disease and the facility to succumb to its Power.—Skin diseases are more prevalent among the natives than the settlers. Phthisis carries off a great number; exposure to extremes is the cause. The subject requires to be treated at full length.
Mr. Thomas, who has for 20 years been the guardian of the tribes contiguous to Melbourne, furnishes a statement, showing during that period 210 deaths as compared with 28 births, and, as he adds in a note, that of the children born most died before the first month was over, it cannot be expected that these tribes, now reduced to only 35 individuals in all, will be long in existence.
Making every allowance, indeed, for the effects of European vices, and especially of intemperance, by which quarrels are fomented, and exposure to cold and damp and disease produced, there is, it must be confessed, something mysterious in that deterioration of the savage which succeeds the introduction of civilization,—and which can hardly be more forcibly described than in the language of the old man quoted by Mr. Goodwin,—“before white fellow came, black fellow could run like emu, but now supposing big one run, then big one tired, and plenty heart jump about.”
Physical prostration, in fact, seems to follow the attempt to imitate the customs of civilized society; and, as I had abundant opportunity of observing in British Guiana among the Indians, the wearing of clothes and adoption of a more settled mode of life detracts from skill in hunting or fishing without imparting sufficient knowledge of or taste for agricultural pursuits to afford a livelihood in exchange.
1. Although the aborigines of this colony are liable to the usual diseases of Europeans, I invariably found years back that they seldom had the common diseases, as rheumatism, &c., &c., to the extent Europeans have. Yet I may state, that eight-tenths of the mortality amongst the aborigines of Victoria arises through intemperance, bringing on pulmonary disorders, pleurisy, pneumonia, disorders of the chest, consumption, &c., which carries them off so speedily that the ablest medical treatment, when available, seldom saves them. I may safely state that when their respiratory organs are once affected recovery becomes hopeless. I have witnessed this so invariably within the last 10 years, as to look forward for death as soon as they are afflicted in the chest.
2. The aborigines, however, were not so affected in their respiratory organs years back as at present; they have only been carried off so precipitately since they have become slaves to intoxicating liquors. I have known blacks, years back, to labour under diseases of the lungs for nine or more months, but now seldom so many weeks, and often not so many days.
3. There is a peculiarity even in their pulmonary disorders to the European; there is not that straining distressing coughing which Europeans labour under; the phlegm comes free without much exertion and pain to the invalid, but accompanied with blood.
4. Wounds of whatever kind which do not affect a vital part are more readily cured than in white people. I have seen most desperate wounds inflicted by their weapons, that would have kept Europeans for months invalids, healed in an incredibly short time, and to the astonishment of medical men. Wounds, whether by accident or otherwise, are immediately attended to by their doctors; if in the fleshy part of the body, they suck the blood from the wound, and continue sucking it till blood ceases to be extracted. If little blood comes from {57} the wound they know all is not right, and will put the patient to pain by probing the wound with their lancet (a sharp bone), or place the body or limb in that position as to compress the opposite part to force blood. They know well the consequences of stagnant blood or matter, especially in the upper parts of the body. When the wound is thoroughly cleansed they leave the rest to nature, clap a lump of pidgerong (a kind of wax oozing from trees) on the wound; should there follow a gathering, they open the wound afresh, and see all right, and again cover it over with the pidgerong or gum.
5. Rheumatism.—Their general remedy is friction. If very severe about legs or thighs, the doctor gets a good mound prepared of ashes, excavating the ground 18 inches, made solely from bark, which never has any grit, but mere ash. If lumbago, the patient is laid on his stomach, the doctor rubs most unmercifully the hot ashes on the part affected, as a butcher would in salting meat; if in thighs or legs, the patient’s feet are put into the mound of heated ashes, about half way up his legs, where he sits whilst the doctor is rubbing the hot ashes on the parts affected. During this process the doctor is incantating, blowing occasionally a portion of dust into the air with a hissing noise. When sufficiently operated upon, the invalid is wrapped up in his blanket.
6. Boils.—The blacks treat boils and swellings thus:—When hard, they lotion the part well with decoction of wattle bark; when obstinate, they boil wild marshmallow, and poultice; if the tumour softens and does not break, they apply their sharp bone lancet.
7. Eruptions on the Skin.—The aborigines are deeply afflicted with a disorder called by them bubberum, white men call it itch, but it is in no way like it; it appears as a raised dark scab, and spreads, joining each other, till it in severe cases covers almost all the lower extremities. It seldom affects the head or upper parts, but I have known it almost cover the thighs and downwards, so as to cause them much difficulty in moving about. Their native cure for this distemper is to grease the parts affected every night and morning with wheerup (a red ochre) mixed with a decoction of wattle bark. I knew one instance of this disease becoming most distressing to a white man in a respectable position who was continually cohabiting with black lubras.
8. On Burns.—Through their imprudence and carelessness they often get severe burns, which they cure by dabbing the parts over with melted fat, afterwards dash the parts affected over with a pulp made of oppossum fur and dust of the wheerup.
9. On Dysentery.—The aborigines of Australia are very subject to dysentery, but not to the fatal extent as Europeans; their remedy of this disorder is drinking plentifully a decoction of wattle bark and eating gum through the day, and pills night and morning made by themselves of wattle bark and gum.
10. Pains in the Head, Bilious, &c.—If of long standing, the patient is compelled to lie on the back; the native doctor puts his foot on the patient’s head above his neck as long as the patient can bear it, till water literally gushes from the patient’s eyes. However rough this treatment, I have known this operation to give relief, and the patient cured.
11. Disorders of the Lungs, Spitting of Blood, &c.—The blacks study much the colour of the spittle in those affected in the lungs, and know well its stages. When the patient begins to spit blood, there is much attention paid to him; should this increase, which generally is the case, the native doctors have a consultation. When once the black doctors hold a consultation, they will not let the patient take any more medicine from the whites. The invalid is laid down on his back, is held firm by three or more blacks, whilst the native doctor keeps continually pressing with his feet, even to jump, on the patient’s belly. I need scarcely state that this cruel practice brings on premature death.
12. Venereal Disease.—Though this disease in the first instance must have been contracted from the whites, the native doctors have prescribed a cure, which, though simple, I have found efficacious. They boil the wattle bark till it becomes very strong; they use it as a lotion to the parts affected. I can state here from my own personal knowledge of three Golburn blacks having this disease so deeply rooted in them, that the then colonial surgeon, Dr. Cousin, on examining them said life would not be saved unless they entered into the hospital, and an operation performed, which they would not consent to. After 18 months these three blacks returned to Melbourne among the tribes (two {58} were young, the other middle aged,) perfectly cured, and the blacks assured me they had used only the wattle bark lotion. Dr. Wilmot, our late coroner, also saw these three blacks whilst in this state and after their soundness, and in his report upon the aborigines stated “however violent this disease may appear among aborigines, that it could not enter into their system as it did in European constitutions.”
13. In the aboriginal primitive state in times of sickness, as influenza or other diseases prevalent, they invariably carried fire about with them wherever they went; this was of bark only; a thick bark, which they provided for the day’s journey.
14. Fevers.—The aboriginal doctors’ treatment in fevers is strictly the cold water system; no matter what kind of fever it may be, cold water is the remedy, accompanied with prohibition of animal food. The doctors have a quantity of water by them, fill their mouths full, spurt it from the mouth over the whole of the patient’s body, back and front, and for a considerable time to the navel, then with their hands throw it over the face and breast; then lay the patient on the back, breathe and blow at the navel, incantating continually while operating. If the patient be young, the doctor will carry him, and plunge him or her into the creek or river. The adult patients will voluntarily, by the assistance of their friends, plunge themselves in three or four times a day. The blacks obstinately persist in this mode of treatment, although they find generally death is the result. I was not a little surprised to find many years back that this also was the mode of treatment among the natives of the South Sea Islands. As soon as fever attacked them, they crept to the banks of the Yarra, and plunged themselves in three or more times a day, as the aboriginals of Australia. I was called to witness their habits when a party of them were enticed over by the late Mr. Boyd; they were located at Mr. Fennel’s (Mr. Boyd’s agent) by the banks of the Yarra.
15. I attach to this report on the diseases of the aborigines the opinions of 29 gentlemen, situated in various parts of the colony, who one and all bear testimony to the awful mortality amongst them.
| Names. | Diseases. |
|---|---|
| Mr. Orr | Intemperance and venereal. |
| " Lane | Scorbutic. |
| " Templeton | Intemperance and venereal. |
| " Sherard | Intemperance and exposure. |
| " Shuter | Consumption and decline. |
| " Wilson | Intemperance and exposure. |
| " Feskin | Bronchitis, pericarditis, psoriasis, and intemperance. |
| " McLeod | Intemperance and exposure. |
| " Ormond | Consumption, venereal, and intemperance. |
| " Cook | Syphilis. |
| " Aitkin | Liver complaints; intemperance; rheumatism. |
| " Skene | Syphilis, consumption, and rheumatism. |
| " Beveridge | Pulmonary consumption and venereal. |
| " Allen | Influenza. |
| " Craig | Influenza, consumption, and intemperance. |
| " Gilles | Intemperance. |
| " Strutt | Intemperance and violence. |
| " J. M. Allan | Influenza; inflammation of lungs; venereal. |
| " Godfrey | Drunkenness; consumption; venereal. |
| " Gottreux | Bronchitis; affection of the chest. |
| " Currie | Pulmonary complaints; intemperance. |
| " Lydiard | Syphilis; intemperance; rheumatism. |
| " Stewart | Consumption; intemperance. |
| " Mitchell | Pulmonary consumption; venereal. |
| " Coake | Consumption and old age. |
| " Huou | Influenza; intemperance. |
| " Wills (Omeo) | Intemperance; gun-shot wounds; venereal. |
| " Featherstonhaugh. | Pulmonary; venereal. |
| " Lewes | Atrophy; influenza. |
16. A return from a public hospital, I deem, would be a fair criterion for the Central Board, embracing the two points, mortality and diseases.
RETURN of ABORIGINAL NATIVES admitted into the Melbourne Hospital from 1st January to 8th November to date. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DATE. | NAME. | TRIBE. | DISEASE. | REMARKS. |
| April 17 | Tommy Buckley | Gipps’ Ld. | Burnt back | Discharged, July 20 |
| July 4 | Maria | Yarra | Pneumonia | Discharged, July 24 |
| September 14 | James Shaw | Hopkins’ R. | Pleurisy; Phthisis. | Died, October 21 |
| September 18 | Sandy | Sydney | Pneumonia and Phthisis. | Died, September 25 |
| October 30 | Tommy Buckley | Gipps’ Ld. | Pneumonia and Phthisis. | Died, November 2 |
| October 30 | Tommy Nannering | Yarra | Pneumonia and Phthisis. | Died, November 2 |
|
4 deaths, and 2 discharged. | ||||
RETURN showing the Number of Aboriginal Natives who have died in the Yarra and Western Port Districts from the 1st April 1839 to the 31st December 1859, distinguishing Sexes, Tribes, &c. | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| —— | Yarra Tribe. | Western Port Tribe. | Other Tribes journeying. | TOTAL. | Grand Total. | REMARKS. | ||||
| M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | |||
| 1 April 1839 to 1 Mar. 1840 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 5 | 15 | 1 murdered. |
| 1 Mar. 1840 to 1 Mar. 1841 | 1 | — | 1 | 1 | 4 | — | 6 | 1 | 7 | 2 murdered; 1 shot himself; 2 shot by authorities; 1 died in jail. |
| 1 Mar. 1841 to 1 Mar. 1842 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 12 | 7 | 19 | 2 murdered; 2 died of grief; 1, after leg amputated; 2 executed. |
| 1 Mar. 1842 to 1 Mar. 1843 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | — | 7 | 3 | 10 | 1 executed. |
| 1 Mar. 1843 to 1 Mar. 1844 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 17 | 1 died by violence. |
| 1 Mar. 1844 to 1 Mar. 1845 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 1 murdered; 1 died of wounds. |
| 1 Mar. 1845 to 1 June 1846 | 5 | 3 | — | 1 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 13 | |
| 1 June 1846 to 1 June 1847 | 1 | 4 | 2 | — | 5 | — | 8 | 4 | 12 | 2 executed. |
| 1 June 1847 to 1 June 1848 | — | 4 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 8 | 17 | |
| 1 June 1848 to 1 June 1849 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 13 | 1 murdered. |
| 1 June 1849 to 31 Dec. 1849 | 4 | 7 | 2 | — | 4 | 5 | 10 | 12 | 22 | |
| 1 Jan. 1850 to 31 Dec. 1850 | 1 | — | 1 | 1 | — | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 murdered by Gipps’ Land blacks. |
| 1 Jan. 1851 to 31 Dec. 1851 | 1 | — | — | — | — | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 speared in drunken fray. |
| 1 Jan. 1852 to 31 Dec. 1852 | 2 | — | 3 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 10 | 2 | 12 | 5 murdered; 1, through intemperance. |
| 1 Jan. 1853 to 31 Dec. 1853 | — | — | — | — | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 1 Jan. 1854 to 31 Dec. 1854 | 1 | — | — | 1 | 2 | — | 3 | 1 | 4 | 1 murdered in drunken row; 1, intemperance. |
| 1 Jan. 1855 to 31 Dec. 1855 | — | — | 3 | 1 | 2 | — | 5 | 1 | 6 | 1 poisoned while drunk; 1, intemperance. |
| 1 Jan. 1856 to 31 Dec. 1856 | — | — | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 2, through intemperance; 1, supposed poisoned. |
| 1 Jan. 1857 to 31 Dec. 1857 | 1 | — | 2 | 1 | 1 | — | 4 | 1 | 5 | 1 Murray R. black, through intemperance. |
| 1 Jan. 1858 to 31 Dec. 1858 | 1 | — | 1 | 1 | — | — | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| 1 Jan. 1859 to 31 Dec. 1859 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — | 3 | — | 5 | 1 | 6 | 2 suddenly intoxicated; 1, Collingwood stockade. |
| 129 | 81 | 210 | ||||||||
RETURN showing the Number of Aboriginal Natives born in the Yarra and Western Port Districts from the 1st April 1839 to the 31st December 1859. | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| —— | Yarra Tribe. | Western Port Tribe. | Other Tribes journeying. | TOTAL. | Grand Total. | REMARKS. | ||||
| M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | |||
| 1 Apr. 1839 to 1 Mar. 1840 | — | 1 | — | 1 | — | 1 | — | 3 | 3 | It will be apparent from this Return, taken carefully from my journal, that there has been no comparison of births in proportion to deaths. Of these children born, it is lamentable that most died before the first month, or removing from the encampment for a week or two and return childless. I have in one line included the last nine years, as there have been no births from any other tribe in the Yarra and Western Port Districts. |
| 1 Mar. 1840 to 1 Mar. 1841 | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | 1 | — | 1 | |
| 1 Mar. 1841 to 1 Mar. 1842 | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | 1 | — | 1 | |
| 1 Mar. 1842 to 1 Mar. 1843 | 1 | 1 | — | — | — | — | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 1 Mar. 1843 to 1 Mar. 1844 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 1 Mar. 1844 to 1 Mar. 1845 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | 1 | |
| 1 Mar. 1845 to 1 June 1846 | 2 | 2 | — | — | — | — | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| 1 June 1846 to 1 June 1847 | — | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | 1 | |
| 1 June 1847 to 1 June 1848 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 1 June 1848 to 1 June 1849 | 1 | 1 | — | — | — | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 June 1849 to 31 Dec. 1849 | 1 | — | — | — | — | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 June 1850 to 31 Dec. 1859, the last 10 years | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | — | — | 3 | 5 | 8 | |
| 11 | 17 | 28 | ||||||||
Having travelled much in Australia, America, and the West Indies, and having also resided on the Coast of Africa, where I penetrated a considerable distance into the interior, traversing the countries between the Gambia and the Senegal, and ascending the former river 600 miles, I was consequently frequently brought into contact with numerous aboriginal tribes of very different characters and descent, and under varying physical and external circumstances.
I have, however, never seen natives whose general habits and physical conformation impressed me so completely with the idea of a perishable and doomed race as the aborigines of the southern portion of this continent.
I may add that as I almost always find it necessary to release native prisoners before the expiration of their sentences, because death is apt to ensue from any prolonged confinement, I cannot but think that even the partial confinement in schools injuriously affects the native constitution, so nearly do they approximate to the lower animal creation.
The aboriginies of this colony (South Australia) have not a very wide range of disease from which they suffer.
I have never seen a case of small-pox, scarlet fever, measles, or hooping cough, and I was officially connected with them for 18 years.
Fever occurs, but not frequently, as they have no confined badly ventilated dwellings.
Diarrhœa and dysentery make their appearance in the hot weather, and from five to ten per cent. of the cases prove fatal; these attacks occur most frequently during dentition, as with the Europeans.
The brain and nervous system are seldom attacked primarily. In their native state they indulge in no stimulants, and are not guilty of overtaxing their mental powers.
Consumption is common amongst them; and in every death that I have seen in the school children, there have been tubercular deposits in the lungs. The same occurs in the adults who have been six months and upwards confined in gaol; in fact, they cannot survive confinement in a prison beyond two years. Confine them two years and they will waste and die in a few months after liberation.
The most fatal disease that has come under my notice is the venereal, contracted by contact with the Europeans. Males and females suffer alike from it, and die generally of secondary effects.
As a race the aborigines are dying off and disappearing before a more highly civilized people, and must eventually disappear altogether. The venereal disease on the one hand, and the fact that the women are apt to become prostitutes, and in consequence cease to bear children, on the other, are reducing them at a very rapid rate.
It is universally admitted that they are fast decreasing in number, and the cause of this decrease is attributed by most witnesses to their partial assumption of semi-civilized habits; where formerly they clothed themselves with the skins of animals taken in the chase, contact with Europeans has so changed their habits that they now, in a great measure, depend upon the scanty dole of blankets issued by the Government, which supplies, it appears from evidence, have been most irregular. Great suffering has been occasioned, especially among the aged and infirm natives, by the insufficient and ill-timed supplies, both of blankets and provisions. Disease appears to be induced by this partial and irregular clothing; pulmonary complaints prevailed to a fearful extent during last winter, aggravated by, if not entirely attributable to, this cause.