T96 Natural History Bulletin. 



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

 but no one seems to make a business of securing them for 

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

 the}^ wall attempt to sell them. A sort ot soup or chowder is 

 made of the •• conch." Stronibus gt'i^as. 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-tish.'' Milk and butter are 

 only occasionally obtained by the sick. Eggs are bought and 

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

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

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

 of diet are yams, flour 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 faithfulh- 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 were in worse condition than the men and 

 boys, not receiving the benefit of the out-door life enjo3'ed 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 unbelieyable extent to which the 

 people of the settlement have interm.arried. In her own 

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

 stant intermarriafje of near relatives, which has a tendency 

 not only to deteriorate the family b}- 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 mv case-book. With the exception 

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

 here generation after generation, marr}ing and intermarrying 

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



