The Growth of the Native Races of Cape Colony. 259 



owing to effective vaccination — is infinitesimal ; scarlet fever and 

 measles are rare, apparently owing to low racial susceptibility to these 

 diseases ; cancer, curiously enough, is exceedingly rare ; want and 

 famine are almost unknown ; sj'philis is uncommon, except among 

 the Bechuanas ; tribal wars are things of the past, and the pax 

 Britannica reigns from one end of the country to the other. 



Effects op Civilisation and Contact with Europeans. 



Tills brings us to consider the effects of the leaven of European 

 civilisation which is gradually, but at an accelerating rate, permeating 

 the mass of this primitive people, and the ijuestion of whethei- tlie 

 present extraordinary rate of increase of the native population is likely 

 to continue. Assuming that peace and the present restrictions as 

 regards the use of alcolxjlic liquors ai*e maintained and that no wide- 

 spread calamity such as famine occurs, the chief factoi-s likely to affect 

 the rate of increase are the gradually increasing " struggle for exis- 

 tence " arising from the increasing population ; the increasing density 

 of the population and its partial concentration in special areas ; the 

 gradual adoption of European dress and diet, and the increasing risk 

 of dissemination of infectious and contagious diseases wliich have been 

 introduced hy Europeans ; also, as some set-off in certain respects 

 against these adverse factors, the inci-easing intelligence of the native 

 peoples. 



In view of the vast areas of fertile and as yet largely undeveloped 

 country at present occupied and mostly reserved in perpetuity to the 

 natives, the first of these factors — the increasing struggle for existence 

 — is not likely to have any appreciable effect for many years to come. 

 Formerly, when the head of a family died it was customaiy to burn his 

 hut and clothing- a practice which was distinctly useful in the direc- 

 tion of limiting the spread of infectious disease. Tn most native areas, 

 owing to the increasing scarcity and cost of hut-building materials and 

 the increasing limitation of suitable sites for new huts, this custom 

 is rapidl}' dying out. 



Tlie harmful effects of European dress on the native are undoubted. 

 His blanket is, as a rule, tolerably clean; it is impregnated with red 

 ochre, which is obnoxious to vermin ; when he perspires he wraps it 

 round his waist or removes it altogether ; if it gets wet it dries readily, 

 or is at the first opportunity put out and dried. When he takes to 

 European clothes he wears them night and day almost until they fall 

 oft"; if they get wet from perspiration or rain they have to dry on him, 

 and in tliis way they soon become impregnated with dirt and perspira- 

 tion, and more or less impervious. They thus predispose to affections 

 of the chest and seriously interfere with the functions of the skin, 

 which probably plays an appreciably greater part in eliminating waste 

 matters than in the case of Europeans, and upset the adjustment 

 between the excretory activities of the skin and kidneys, an altered 

 adjustment to which Europeans have been accustomed for generations. 

 These effects are noticeable even in infancy and childhood. A Kafir 



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