SECT. II.] HEALING POWER. 127 



sibilty to pain, which has been so often attributed to the native 

 Americans. Rengger 1 is also of that opinion, whilst many 

 modern observers ascribe to the native Americans a highly sen- 

 sitive and nervous constitution. 2 The case resembles that of 

 tin? Bedouin Arabs, who consider it a point of honour to exhibit 

 no sign of pain. 



With regard to the native Americans, a relatively greater heal- 

 ing power of nature has been observed among the Blackfeet, the 

 Indians of Paraguay and the Abiponians; 3 and of native Mexicans 

 we hear that they heal wounds which would be mortal to Eu- 

 ropeans by merely washing them with brandy. 4 Malays also 

 frequently recover from injuries which would prove fatal to 

 Europeans. 5 Of twelve Tonga Islanders whose arms were cut 

 off in the rudest manner, one only died from loss of blood and 

 another from grief. 6 Similar cases of Marquesas Islanders are 

 reported by Marchand. 7 



These examples prove that the healing power of nature is 

 greater among savage than among civilized peoples. We 

 must not however close these observations without mentioning 

 another circumstance which has been made use of to establish 

 the specific difference between the races of man, especially 

 between the black and the white. It has been asserted that 

 the lice of the Negroes are not only black and smaller than in 

 Europeans, but that they do not exist in the former, whilst the 

 European louse perishes in the Tropics. 8 Both these assertions 

 seem to have been first made by Oviedo, 9 which he qualifies by 

 adding, that European vermin is rarely preserved, whilst that 

 of the Indians only attacks some children of the whites born in 

 America. As Peters 10 proves to a certainty, that the European 



1 " Naturgesch. d. Saugeth," p. 12. 



2 Ausland, p. 1146, 1857. 



3 Prince Max., " E. in N. Am.," i, p. 581 ; Kengger, " Naturgesch. der 

 Siiugeth. von Paraguay," p. 12 ; Dobrizhoffer, ii, p. 54. 



4 HeUer, " E. in Mex.," p. 58, 1853. 



5 Crawford, "Hist, of the Ind. Archip.," i, p. 31, Edinb., 1820; Harris, 

 Collect, of voy.," i, p. 743. 



6 Mariner, "Tonga Isl.," ii, p. 251. 



7 " Neueste R. u. d. Welt," i, p. 



p. 144, Leipzig. 

 3 Duttenhofer, " Die Emancip. der Neger,," p. 33, 1855. 



9 " Sumario de la nat. hist, in Historiad. prim, de Ind.," p. 508, Madr., 1852. 



10 " Monat. der Ges. f. Erdk. N. Folge," i, p. ON. 



