Notices respecting New Books. . 147 
we particularly wish to introduce the present article, is to 
vindicate the tharacter of the nation from a foul reproach, 
and the profession of medicine from that uncertainty with 
»which every wag has too often and sometimes too justly 
charged it. 
.. That the islands of Otaheite first received a deadly poison 
from the Europeans. has been so generally admitted, that 
‘the only doubt, has hitherto been, which of two rival na- 
tions was the author of sucha boon: meanwhile, nothing 
has been so common as to Jament the fate of the unhappy 
islanders, whose very existence seemed in danger by their 
pradually diminished numbers from this baneful source. 
ow much will our readers be surprised to find that the 
disease has never existed in those islands! and how much 
does it redound to the credit of the medical art, that this 
discovery should be made from imperfect records, which de- 
scribe the effects of the malady among the islanders without 
the least doubt or reserve !—For the development of this 
fact we shall transcribe the passage in the work before us. 
** Having thus (says the editor) | hope sufficiently illustrat- 
ed Mr. Hunter’s explanation, how the same matter applied 
to different surfaces may produce different effects, the reader 
must indulge me with a few words on the South Sea disease, 
*« About the year 1800, a lady of fashion, who was recom- 
mended to my care in Madeira, brought with her the French 
account of De la Peyrouse’s voyage. Though [ had leisure 
enough to peruse the whole, yet the letters of his surgeon 
attracted my particular notice. After examining them with 
the greatest attention, I could not help remarking, that he 
wrote of mals veneriens without the precision of a Hunter. 
In the end, I was convinced there was reason ‘to doubt 
whether De la Peyrouse’s surgeon had met with the venereal 
disease in any of the places in which he spoke of it with 
so much freedom. This induced me to examine the ac- 
counts of Captain Cook’s voyages, and the result was, a 
thorough conviction that, if the disease existed at all 
_in the South Sea islands, there was at least no satisfae- 
tory proof of it. Under this impression, I wrote to three 
physicians in London, explaining my doubts, and, perhaps 
with more quixotism than prudence, was willing, if en- 
couraged, to make a voyage in order to ascertam a point 
involying not only an important medical question, but in 
some measure the national reputation. , 
‘* Fortunately, this question has been much better decided 
by one who candidly admits his arrival at those islands with 
a most perfect conviction that the disease existed there 
K@ a 
