192 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. CHAP. xn. 



Scrofula should not be regarded as a disease confined to the 

 unhappy few who transmit it from father to son, from one gene- 

 ration to another, with undeviating regularity, but as a disease of 

 circumstances (if the expression may be allowed), and that it 

 might be engrafted in almost any constitution, provided the 

 causes were permitted to operate. It is well known that this 

 disease can be produced in many domestic animals by unwhole- 

 some food. It is a popular opinion that the Indian race is 

 endowed with great vigour and stamina, but a more intimate 

 acquaintance with the subject will prove its fallacy. 



The Indians of Lake Huron are seldom above the middle 

 size, slender, but for the most part well formed ; the chief defect 

 in their figure is in their chest, which is generally flat and 

 narrow. They are certainly capable of great exertions, but only 

 for a limited period, and always followed by long intervals of 

 repose. 



To enumerate all the diseases to which Indians are liable 

 would be only a catalogue of almost all the ills of which flesh is 

 heir, but a few desultory remarks may be acceptable. Acute 

 diseases of the organs within the skull and abdomen are com- 

 paratively rare, while those within the chest are the seat of the 

 most frequent and fatal attack ; during the summer heat, great 

 numbers of infants are destroyed by diarrhoea, and survive only 

 to be carried off by miasmatic disease. They are likewise greatly 

 infected with worms. The females suffer much from headache, 

 owing chiefly to constipation, and not unfrequently to obstruc- 

 tions. They can scarcely be said to suffer during parturition, 

 and accidents attending it are rare. Fever, in the ordinary 

 acceptation of the term, is almost unknown. Hooping cough is 

 to them a most distressing disease, and when attended with 

 fever between the paroxysms, almost invariably fatal. Tubercular 

 consumption, bronchitis, and pleurisy are the most frequent 

 and fatal diseases. 



It is impossible to give an estimate of the comparative 

 mortality between them and Europeans, but Dr. Darling 

 is decidedly of opinion that it is higher amongst the 

 former than the latter. The mortality amongst the cliil- 



