R E MA R K S on 



T II E 



A R T5 

 AND 



, ourfhort ilay made it impofTible for us to difcover. 



lECIENCE^ 



rtain, that though thefe na 

 pon the whole lefs fubjeit 



This however 



s are not without difeafes, they 

 them than the Europeans, and 



.we fnuft therefore acknowledge, that they are in that refped phy- 

 fically happier than more civilized nations, who are generally more 



iubjed; to various difeafes. 



Thouo-h there are among the iflanders, efpecially thofe in the 

 Society- Ifles, men whom they call Ta/MUva-mai% who are a kind 



of 



communicated to liira by a girl, whom he kept, 2'Jrf de verljler les dates, page 903. and 



■in 



Carda7ni Chronicle from 1410 — 1494. More inftances that the venereal difeafe had 



^been known among the antients, are to be found m Joh, Zach. Platneri Opufc 



•lujti 



nu de mcrbo Campano, p. 21. Lipfis, 1748, 4^0 Pefrus Martyr de Angleria 



mentions lib. i. epift. 67. dated April the 5th, 1489, that Ario Barbofa, profeflbr at 



-Salamanca, was feverely 



difeafe. X,aflly from Muraioris 



-Colkaio Scrlptorum Wflcrit JtzlUce, tom. xvi. p. S54» 53 5- Jt appears from the Chronkon 

 ^Placentinumt that in the year 555, after Ghrift, there was an epidemical peftilential dillemper 

 'in Italy, which among other fymptoms had thefe peculiar ones, that the glands began to 

 •fwell to thefizeof anut, particularly at the parts which modefly bids to conceal, which 

 fwellino- was followed by an intolerable heat, and that thofe afflided with that dreadful evil 

 died in a day or two. All thefe arguments encourage me to fuppofe, that the venereal difeafe 



r •- 



was not uncommon in antient times; that it however, broke out with new rage about the year 

 1493, and that fixing and attaching itfclf upon many other epidemical diftempers, it became 

 ,virulent, by being communicated by cohabiting with women. We need not wonder therefore 

 4hat the difeafe fhould have made its appearance at Taheitee iind its neighbourhood, lon^ 

 '4:)efore the arrival of Europeans at their ifle. 



^ The Taheiteans call their priefts 2l?-^^/^'X;^2 ; pain, a wound, forenefs, or difeafe, 



ailed 



by them mai ox mamai J from thefe two words, the word .fi_gnifying a phyfxcian or furgeon. 



SM&^wvar 



