18 THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF LEPROSY, ETC. 



going or what for, and the majority have no conception what 

 life on a plantation is like. In former times the coolies where 

 chiefly shipped from Macao, also in Kwantung ; now those that 

 come through Hongkong are inspected, but in Amoy they are 

 shipped under easier conditions. 



It is sufficient for our purpose to have shown that the bulk 

 of the coolies come from the very hot-bed of the disease. Many 

 of the coolies land in a poor state of health, and coolie ships, as- 

 we know by travelling in them, are not all they might be. 



The Cause of the Intensity of the Disease in Hawaii. — 

 On this point we can only hazard a conjecture. It is very 

 noticeable how slightly the Malays are affected, though they are^ 

 in the most direct contact with the Chinese, and are allied in 

 blood to the Indonesian Hawaiians. That the Indonesian and 

 Negroid races in the Archipelago are so free from Leprosy is due 

 to the very slight intercourse they have with the Chinese coolie. 



In the Pacific a different state of things obtains. In the 

 first place the Polynesians and Micronesians are a comparatively 

 stay-at-home people. I'ntil this century they hardly ever saw a 

 stranger of other than their own races. The INIalay, on the other 

 hand, is a born rover, so much so that it is hardly settled where 

 his ancestral home is. 



We know that isolated communites are prone to take new 

 diseases in an intensified form ; even the St. Kilda folk illustrate 

 this. It is owing to this cause that Fiji lost 10,000 inhabitants. 

 in a single epidemic of measles a few years ago. 



Hence it is probable that it is the susceptibility to disease- 

 born of isolation that has made the Pacific Islanders so amenable' 

 to Leprosy, and to other diseases also ; while the allied Malay, a 

 traveller for centuries, escapes more easily. 



How TO Check the Spread of Leprosy. — That Leprosy is 

 spreading through Oceania is unfortunately too true. In Hawaii,.. 

 New Caledonia and Fiji, we have seen how it has sprung up, 

 and it has been pointed out how narrowly North Borneo escaped 

 being stricken. There is further evidence in the same direction^ 

 In 1880, five natives were sent back from New Caledonia to the 

 New Hebrides, suffering from leprous mutilation, and so forming.- 

 a possible new centre of infection. In 1S91, the Stitimn Tiincs,, 



