466 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



of nostalgia. Their knowledge of surgery being limited, tliey died fre- 

 quently from slight wounds. Sometimes great Maori chiefs dropped dead 

 from excessive excitement. In times of war, or of scanty food supply, the 

 old women were killed. A few died from the bite of the katipo, or poisonous 

 spider, and a few from eating poisonous berries, and some are said to have 

 died from sunstroke. 



Now, the Maoris have quitted all their old hill-forts, and hve at the edge 

 of a bush or a swamp, almost always on low-lying, damp, ill-drained spots. 

 It was the author of " Old New Zealand" who first drew our attention to 

 this most important fact. Their old hill-forts were sunny and airy ; the 

 winds blew away the odours, and tliej'' were often above the mists and dews 

 that hang round their present habitations. Usually perched on the edge 

 of a cliff, with a scanty humus beneath their whares, and below that again 

 rocks which let the water escape, these places were always dry and 

 tolerably clean. Now, however, they live in sheltered spots, with only a 

 moderate amount of sunlight and but little wind, with abundance of 

 morning and evening moistness ; below, a thick black humus, with probably 

 a clay basis which retains the water. This land lying low there is usually 

 no subsoil and still less surface drainage. The soil all round their whares 

 is often spongy with retained water and decaying organic matter ; even the 

 floor of their huts is frequently damp. In very many cases it would have 

 been quite impossible for them to have chosen worse or more unhealthy 

 sites for their dwellings. I am quite convinced that this question of change 

 of site is infinitely more powerful in its effects than has hitherto been sup- 

 posed. The chief disease that kills the Maoris is consumption. I beHeve it 

 kills more than all the other diseases put together. In any assembly of 

 Maoris there is sure to be heard a large proportion of coughs, with a death- 

 knell ringing in their tones. We are apt to think consumption dreadfully 

 disastrous to our own kith and kin, but among the Maoris its effects are 

 still more terrible. Consumptive people among ourselves do frequently 

 refrain from marriage for fear of its affecting their offspring, but among 

 the Maoris no such sentiment prevails. No matter how consumptive they 

 will marry, and the results are seen in the sickly offspring, dying early of 

 kindred inherited diseases. Usually among ourselves, even if persons with 

 a consumptive diathesis marry, they mate with healthy people who are not 

 their- kinsfolk. With the Maoris it is altogether different. I am quite 

 convinced that this change of locality is one of the most important factors 

 leading to extinction of the race. The whole evidence of modern medicine 

 shows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the two chief causes of phthisis 

 amongst all nations is the intermarriage of phthisical people, and dwelling on 

 low, damp, ill-drained soils : yet these are the very things which the Maoris 



