a r t s diftorted legs, and one man had a leg that was entirely withered
AND and dried up. Among the robuft New-Zeelanders, I faw'aman SCIENCES r 0
o f a fine figure with a lame hand. But as we were, efpecially in
the beginning, very little acquainted with their language, and had
a great d a l o f other hufinefs upon our hands, we could not
minutely enquire into all the caufes and particulars o f thefe imperfections.
I faw one man at Huaheine, who had a very great
Htrnicr umhilicalis, and another in the fame place with an immenfe
expanfion and fchirroftty o f the right teilicle, which was grown' to
the f i z e o f a child’s head, fo that all the fcrotum, and even the
membrane over the penis was entirely filled up with i t ; and the
aperture for making'water, was driven to one fide, and this man
was neverthelefs aCtive, ftrong, and mounted the fides o f our Ihip,
with as great agility and unconcern,, as i f he were not in the leafl
affeCted by this dreadful accident.
Among the difeafes which we had an opportunity o f obferving
in thefe nations, I muft firft reckon the cough: feveral laboured,
under it, efpecially towards night and in the morning; owing, as
is probable, to their being too long expofed to cold rains or the cool
©£
filled during night, in order to free the inhabitants of tfic numerous mofquitocs fwarming in
thefe marlhy wood's; there are likewife fome kinds of wood, whofe fmoak makes people
either, entirely blind, or at leaft nearly deprives theft of their eye-fight. See Olbeck’s
Toyage, vol. i. p. 520,
If
o f the night on the reef, when they are fifhing, or perhaps being too a r t s
AND
flightly covered during night in their own houfes-. . sciences
Another difeafe was more common among the natives o f thefe
ifles, which has various degrees and ftadia, hut in its utmoft
height and inveteracy feems to be a real kind o f L e p r o fy : its
flighted: degree, is; a kind o f fcaly exfoliation- o f the ikin, o f a.
whitifh, or often- a white colour- Sometimes the whole body was
covered with it, fometimes only one leg, fometimes both or the
hack only were affeCted with it ; or perhaps only a few detached
blotches on the body had this appearance. However we mufl
diftinguifh from this fymptom, two other appearances; the one,
when we faw the bodies o f the natives white and covered with a
difagreeable roughnefs and this being new to us, we imagined
it might be fome difeafe, but they foon undeceived us, by faying
it was only fea' fait, for the moment before they had been,
fwimming in the fea, which we did not know. The fecond
phenomenon is eaufed by the too frequent life o f the before-mentioned
inebriating liquor prepared from the pepper-root: in this,
cafe the Ikin looks as i f it had been parched and dried by heat
and winds,, it has a blackifli appearance, and feales are even now
and then feparated fromit. Th e eyes o f people who ule this liquor
too freely are commonly red, inflamed, and. fore, the body grows
gradually emaciated, and the: inhabitants become ftupid, infirm,
and;