174 DISEASES. 



groups immediately adjacent to them, across a wide tract of sea to 

 the Gilbert and Ellice Groups, and from there to Tokelau Island, 

 and thence to Samoa. The French naviorator, Dentrecasteaux.^ found 

 the same disease to be very prevalent amongst the inhabitants of 

 the Tonga Islands towards the end of last century ; and it seems 

 strange that it did not reach the Samoa Group until about seventy 

 years after. The Tonga natives, however, ma}'- have derived it by 

 another and more direct course from the westward, namely through 

 the New Hebrides and the Fiji Groups. 



I may appear to have entered with unnecessary detail into this 

 subject, but it is apparent that this fungoid skin disease, dissemin- 

 ated as it is by personal contact and other similar agencies, would 

 have reached these sub-central Pacific Groups long ago if they had 

 been occupied through ages by their present inhabitants. The same 

 evidence, therefore, which can be brought forward to prove the 

 recent appearance of this disease amongst the natives of these groups 

 may also be advanced in support of the recent occupation of these 

 islands by the eastern Polynesians. 



From the previous remarks on the distribution of Tokelau 

 Ringworm it may be inferred that in New Guinea and in 

 the islands of the Mala}'' Archipelago we have the home of the 

 disease. From this region it has spread eastward towards the 

 centre of the Pacific ; and we may also infer that this eastward 

 extension of the disease has occurred within the last three hundred 

 years, since in the accounts which Gallego and Quiros give of the 

 natives of the Solomon, Santa Cruz, and New Hebrides Groups at 

 the time of their first discovery by the Spaniards, there is no refer- 

 ence to the prevalence of any cutaneous disease, which, if it had 

 existed, would most certainly have attracted the notice of these 

 early navigators. 



I only had one opportunity of treating this affection, and that was 

 in the person of a- native of Guadalcanar, who was shipped on board 

 as an interpreter, and who had been the subject of the disease for 

 about five months. Partly from its obstinacy, and partly from the 

 difficulty of ensuring that the remedies wei'e regularly and 

 thoroughly employed, m.y experience was not very satisfactory. 

 Sulphur ointment, mercurial ointment, tincture of iodine, and a 

 lotion of hyposulphite of sodq, (1 in 12) were severally used, and 

 a,fter about three weeks the skin was almost clean. Some weeks 



^ "Voyage de Dentrecasteaux," pnr I\l. de Eossel, torn. I. p. 32\ Paris 1808. 



