these necessarily resident at such a distance
from the greater number of the inhabitants,
that they are comparatively of little service:
their salaries are besides extremely small.
An apothecary is commissioned to distribute
gratis a certain quantity of medicine
annually, for which, independent of his pay,
he is allowed three hundred and fifty rix-
dollars. To judge from all this, it might be
concluded that Iceland is singularly salubrious,
but, on the contrary, in no country
is medical attendance more necessary than
here, where the greater part of the inhabitants
are afflicted with the most inveterate
cutaneous complaints, for which their
extreme ignorance and the want of medicines
render them incapable of applying either remedy
or palliative. The sick and the lame
are seen crawling about in almost every part
of the island, presenting the most pitiable
objects of distress and misery. Nor is more
care taken of the females, or of providing
for the safety of the coming generation; as,
though twenty midwives are provided by
government, they are grossly ignorant, and
the pains taken to remove their ignorance
are so applied as to be almost wholly
nugatory. One is sent from Copenhagen for
the purpose of giving the necessary instructions
to the rest; but her salary of one
hundred dollars per annum is too small to
enable her to take long journies, or to do any
effectual good. The other nineteen receive
altogether only one hundred rix-dollars per
annum.
I must not omit, in the small list of useful
officers in the pay of government, to mention
two Danish lieutenants, who are engaged with
respectable salaries in the survey of the whole
island; and, to judge from one or two specimens
of their plans that have come under my
observation, they are well capable of undertaking
this important task.
The annual expences of Iceland, which are
paid by government from various funds established
in Copenhagen, will be at once seen
by the following accounts. It will be, however,
necessary to observe, that 5£f per cent,
is deducted by government from all salaries
paid to officers and others, unless the Contrary
is permitted by express order. What
is called extra deduction in the accounts,
d