143 



to nearly all tropical countries are entirely unknown 

 in Fiji. New comers, however, are said to be sub- 

 ject to attacks of diarrhoea or dysentery. This may 

 arise from careless living, or change of diet ; or, if the 

 person has been travelling in the colony, from poor- 

 ness of food and not being acclimatized or accustomed 

 to having the clothes wet, and neglecting to change 

 them. Slight wounds have a tendency to become 

 sores, if not at once properly attended to, kept clean, 

 covered from the air and strong sunshine, and from 

 salt and brackish water. The Fijians are certainly a 

 rpbust, healthy race, and live to a great age. Though 

 in some places their houses are situated on low-lying 

 marshy land, or even in the middle of marshes of 

 brackish water, and on the edges of mangrove swamps, 

 the people are exempt from all complaints arising from 

 miasma, beyond an occasional severe cold in the cool 

 season, asthma, or rheumatics. 



Elephantiasis is common among the natives, and 

 so is an ulcerous disease locally called coko. It 

 is not fatal, and is mostly confined to children. 

 The Fijians say that their children are neither strong 

 nor healthy till they have have had it. It is supposed 

 to be hereditary, but not contagious. A kind of 

 ophthalmia, which lasts only a few days, is not uncom- 

 mon, and both natives and settlers are subject to it. 

 The settlers throughout the colony, and European 

 tradesmen in Levuka, such as carpenters, &c, work in 

 the open air constantly throughout the year, exposed 

 to all the changes of weather, without feeling any bad 

 effects. This says a great deal for the healthiness of 

 the climate, as Levuka is about the worst place in Fiji 

 for situation. But however healthy the climate of 

 Fiji may be in general, its effect on the average Euro- 



