[53] WORK OF STEAMER ALBATROSS. 657 



evident, however, that any system of ventilation in order to be perfect 

 must be in continuous action. 



The first part of the year, from early in February to May, was passed 

 principally among the Bahama Islands, where the temperature was mild, 

 the winds fresh but soft, and the climate generally conducive to health 

 and comfort. The islands themselves in their present condition furnish 

 wonderfully little of general interest to the visitor, and fail utterly to 

 justify the glowing accounts given of them by their discoverers. The 

 inhabitants of the islands, with the exception of New Providence, are 

 poor and thriftless but not wretched or degraded, mostly colored, evi- 

 dently diminishing in numbers, extracting a very plain subsistence from 

 a thin soil impervious to modern implements of husbandry, and from 

 the more open-handed generosity of the sea. There are no educated 

 medical men on the islands except at Nassau, and the announcement 

 of the presence of a "doctor" among them was sufficient to surround him 

 speedily with a numerous clientele, consisting of the sick, those who had 

 been sick, and those who thought that they might at some future time 

 get sick, all anxious to avail themselves of the rare opportunity for pro- 

 fessional treatment. Every effort was made to minister to their neces. 

 sities as well as their fancies, and their expressions of gratitude for 

 what they received were evidently sincere. So far as was observed the 

 physical condition of the people seemed to be good. There were few 

 maimed or deformed, and only occasional evidence of the prevalence of 

 specific diseases among them, either at present or in the past. These 

 remarks, however, apply only to the outlying islands and not to New 

 Providence, upon which is situated Nassau, the largest town and the 

 principal commercial port of the Bahamas. 



Among the interesting cases observed was one of Hysterical Paralysis 

 of several months' continuance, the patient having been utterly unable 

 to move a muscle of the lower extremities during that time. The sub- 

 ject was a well-conditioned young girl, one among numerous victims of 

 a remarkable epidemic of hysteria attending great religious excitemeut 

 on Cat Island. Several hundred persons, a very large percentage of 

 the whole population, were said to have been affected, mostly young 

 people, boys and men as well as girls and women, and their wild vaga- 

 ries were related by witnesses with a solemnity that assured the hearer 

 how r firmly rooted was the belief in the supernatural character of the 

 manifestations. Treatment of this case by nerve tonics and electricity 

 for a few days was attended by such marked improvement that a com- 

 plete and speedy recovery was certain. 



The summer and autumn cruise of the ship was made on the North 

 Atlantic coast, with Wood's Holl as headquarters, northward as far as 

 St. John's, Newfoundland. The Grand Banks in August developed the 

 same foggy, rainy, disagreeable, and depressing climate for which it is 

 noted, and a week in the quiet and snug harbor of St. John's was a wel- 

 come and refreshing interlude. Nothing for record in this department 

 S. Mis. 00 42 



