160 REPORT. 



on which he has made some very excellent 

 observations, and I regret that my limits will 

 oblige me to exclude them from this work. 

 Dr. Mair observes, that he met with no oppo- 

 sition on the jDart of the aborigines in his wishes 

 to extend to them the inestimable benefits of 

 vaccination ; those who had not suffered from 

 the late epidemic, viewed their escape as acci- 

 dental, and while its frightful symptoms and 

 dire effects were yet fresh in their memories, 

 they were willing to submit to a simple operation, 

 which, they were told, would henceforth protect 

 them against the disease. Dr. Mair thus con- 

 cludes his interesting and valuable report. 



"1. The eruptive febrile disease, which lately 

 prevailed among the aborigines, was contagious, 

 or communicable from one person to another, 

 and capable of being propagated by inoculation. 



" 2. It approached more nearly in its symptoms 

 to the character of small-pox than any other 

 disease with which we are acquainted, particu- 

 larly to that species of small-pox described by 

 Staff-surgeon Marshall, as occurring in the Kan- 

 dyan provinces in 1819.* 



"3. The mortality attending the disease varied 

 from one in three to one in five or six, but might 

 have been less if the persons labouring under it 



* Quoted in Good's Study of Medicine, vol. iii. page 82. 



