196 Natural History Bulletin. 



not always have. Fish are plentiful in the surrounding waters, 

 but no one seems to make a business of securinp" them for 

 general consumption, and even when a good catch is made, 

 they will attempt to sell them. A sort of soup or chowder is 

 made of the '■ conch," Sfi'oii/bii:} sL^'^''^^ but the meat is exceed- 

 ingly tough and about as savory as India rubber. Land-crabs 

 are caught in a hap-hazard, spasmodic way, as are the spiny 

 lobsters, which they call "craw-hsh."' Milk and butter are 

 only occasionally obtained by the sick. Fggs are bought and 

 sold singly, and are so small that one seldom sees enough 

 at any one time to satisfv a man with a reasonably good appe- 

 tite. The only things that can be regarded as staple articles 

 of diet are yams, iiour and conchs, the other edibles men- 

 tioned above being more properly ranked as luxuries and 

 dainties. 



Our good doctor was regarded as a special Providence by 

 these people, and faithfully ministered to them and their little 

 ones during our stay at Spanish Wells. She studied these 

 people with some care, and came to the conclusion that the 

 women and girls W'Cre in worse condition than the men and 

 boys, not receiving the benefit of the out-door life enjoyed by 

 the latter. Most of the sick children and infants were suffer- 

 ing greatly from lack of proper nourishment, but she also 

 noticed so many cases of malformation and monstrosities of 

 various sorts, that another cause seemed at work. This, she 

 thinks, is found in the almost unbelievable extent to which tiie 

 people of the settlement have intermarried. In her own 

 words: "As an explanation of this we would give the con- 

 stant intermarriage of near relatives, which has a tendency 

 not only to deteriorate the family by diminishing fertility, but 

 reaches the inevitable result of ill-balanced offspring. A very 

 good illustration of this degeneracy came under my observa- 

 tion. Among the twenty or more patients treated, I have 

 but three surnames on my case-book. With the exception 

 of two, all were of the same name. This family have lived 

 here generation after generation, marr\ing and intermanying 

 until there is not a family on the island with more than two 



