which terminates in a permanent affection of the spine; it usually appears in early life, commencing in the form of an intermittent or remittent. The body is reduced almost to a skeleton; and the disease terminates in death, or a large curvature of the spine, so as considerably to diminish the height of the individual, and cause a very unsightly protrusion of the spine between the shoulders, or a curvature inwards, causing the breast-bones to appear unusually prominent. Multitudes in every one of the Society Islands are to be seen deformed by this disease, which the natives call tuapu, literally, projecting; or, as we should say, humped-back.

After this curvature has occurred, the patient usually recovers, and, although greatly deformed, does not appear more predisposed to disease than others. Those individuals are often among the most active, intelligent, and ingenious of the people.

Connected with this disease, there are two remarkable circumstances. I am not prepared to say that it is hereditary, but the children of such persons are more frequently the subjects of it than others. It is also singular that it should prevail principally among the lower classes of society, the farmers and the mechanics. I know of no principal chief, and I cannot recollect any one even of secondary rank, thus afflicted: yet their rank and station are hereditary. This single fact renders more striking than it otherwise would be, the difference in appearance between the chiefs and people, and it may certainly warrant the inference, that the meagre living of the latter exposes them to maladies, from which more generous diet and comfortable modes of life exempt their superiors.

Some say this singular complaint, which was unknown to their ancestors, has only prevailed since they have been visited by foreign shipping. It does not prevail among the inhabitants of the surrounding islands; but whether it be of recent origin or not, in Tahiti it is very affecting to witness the numbers that have suffered; and we cannot but hope that as industry and civilization advance, and their mode of living improves, it will in an equal ratio disappear from among them.

Blindness is frequently induced by the same disease that precedes the spinal curvature. The condition of the blind, when suffered to live, must, under the reign of idolatry, have been truly lamentable-they were generally objects of derision and neglect, if not of wanton cruelty.

Insanity prevailed in a slight degree, but individuals under its influence met with a very different kind of treatment. They were supposed to be inspired or possessed by some god, who, the natives imagined, had entered every one suffering under mental aberrations. On this account no control was exercised, but the highest respect was shewn them. They were, however, generally avoided, and their actions were considered as the deeds of the god, rather than the man. Under these circumstances, when the poor wretch became his own destroyer, it was not regarded as an event to be deplored. Deafness was sometimes experienced; and there are a few persons in the islands who can neither speak nor hear distinctly.

In their application to particular diseases, the priests manifested considerable acquaintance with the medicinal properties of the herbs, and their adaptation to the complaint, to relieve which they were employed; but their practice must have been

very uncertain and ineffectual, though they were held in high esteem by all ranks. Convulsions being sometimes experienced, were considered to result from the direct power of the god. Sudden death was also attributed to the same cause-and an attack so terminating, was called rima atua, “hand of god.” Those who died suddenly were also said to be haruhia e te atua, or uumehia e te atua: seized by the god, or strangled by the god." Indeed, the gods were supposed to send all the diseases with which they were afflicted.

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Whatever mystery they might attach to the preparation and use of medicine, their practice of surgery, and application of external remedies, were more simple and straightforward. They did not apply friction in the same manner as the Sandwich Islanders sometimes do, viz. by placing the patient flat on the ground, and rolling a twelve or fourteen pound shot backwards and forwards along the back; but in a far more gentle manner, by rubbing with the hands the muscles of the limbs, and pressing them in the same way as the Indians practise shampooing.

The natives had no method of using the warmbath, but often seated their patients on a pile of heated stones strewed over with green herbs or leaves, and kept them covered with a thick cloth till the most profuse perspiration was induced; something like that produced by the fashionable vapour bath. In this state, to our great astonishment, at the most critical seasons of illness, the patient would leave the heap of stones, and plunge into the sea, near which the oven was generally heated. Though the shock must have been very great, they appeared to sustain no injury from this transition.

There were persons among them celebrated as oculists, but their skill principally consisted in removing foreign substances from the eye; and when applied to for this purpose, they, as well as others, received the payment or fee before they commenced their operations; but if the present did not please them, they, to satisfy their employers, sometimes took one splinter, &c. out of the eye, and left another in, that they might be sent for again. Their surgeons were remarkably dexterous in closing a cut or thrust, by drawing the edges carefully together, and applying the pungent juice of the ape, arum costatum, to the surface. This, acting like caustic, must have caused great pain.

A fractured limb they set without much trouble; applying splinters of bamboo-cane to the sides, and keeping it bound up till healed. A dislocation they usually succeeded in reducing; but the other parts of their surgical practice were marked by a rude promptness, temerity, and barbarism, almost incredible. A man one day fell from a tree, and dislocated some part of his neck.

His

companions, on perceiving it, instantly took him up one of them placed his head between his own knees, and held it firmly; while the others, taking hold of his body, twisted the joint into its proper place.

On another occasion, a number of young men, in the district of Fare, were carrying large stones, suspended from each end of a pole across their shoulders, their usual mode of carrying a burden: one of them so injured the vertebræ, as to be almost unable to move; he had, as they expressed it, fati te tua, broken the back. His fellow-workmen laid him flat on his face on the grass; one grasped and pulled his shoulders, and the other his

legs, while a third actually pressed with both knees his whole weight upon the back, where the bones appeared displaced. It was not far from Mr. Barff's house where the accident occurred, and, observing the people assembled, he went to inquire the cause, and saw them thus engaged. On his asking what they were doing, they coolly replied, that they were only straightening the man's back, which had been broken with carrying stones. The vertebræ appeared to be replaced; they bound a long girdle repeatedly round his body, led him home, and, without any other treatment, he was in a short time able to resume his employment.

The operation of trepanning they sometimes attempted, and say they have practised it with success. It is reported that there are persons living in the island of Borabora on whom it has been performed, or at least an operation very much resembling it: the bones of the skull having been fractured in battle, they have cleared away the skin and coverings, and, having removed the fractured piece of bone, have carefully fitted in a piece of cocoa-nut shell, and replaced the covering and skin; on the healing of which, the man has recovered. I never saw any individual who had undergone this operation, but, from the concurrent testimony of the people, I have no doubt they have performed it.

It is also related, although I confess I can scarcely believe it, that on some occasions, when the brain has been injured as well as the bone, they have opened the skull, taken out the injured portion of the brain, and, having a pig ready, have killed it, taken out the pig's brains, put them in the man's head, and covered them up. They persist in stating that this has been done; but