230 On the Condition and Prospects 



the Committee, intimated that he found this malady among the 

 Bunya Bunya tribes, some of whom had never been in communica- 

 tion with the whites. He could not, however, form any opinion 

 whether or not these tribes had this disease before or since tjie ar- 

 rival of Europeans; nor could the aborigines themselves give any 

 information on the subject. But the agency of the colonists has 

 been terribly effectual in disseminating this disease among these 

 wandering outcasts of the soil. In the various communications to 

 the committee this destructive malady stands prominently forward 

 among the more immediate causes to which the decrease in the 

 numbers of the aborigines is attributable ; and its attacks are ren- 

 dered unusually virulent and distressing, from the exposed and ir- 

 regular manner of aboriginal life, and the absence of proper medical 

 assistance.* Mr Thomas relates the shocking and frightful extent to 

 which this complaint prevailed throughout the Port Philip district 

 on the arrival of the Protectors, flf Old and young," says he, "even 

 children at the breast, were affected with it. I have known hapless 

 infants brought into the world literally rotten with this disease." 



Chiefly remarkable amongst the other diseases of the aborigines 

 appears the leucorrhoca, a very prevalent complaint, which rages with 

 great severity. It is a curious circumstance, attested by various 

 experience, that the introduction of this affection among uncivilised 

 races appears to be contemporary with the arrival of European 

 females in the country. It is apt to be mistaken for secondary 

 symptoms, or a modified elephantiasis.f 



A great proportion of the aborigines, as stated by the bench of 

 magistrates at Goulburn, have died from pulmonary affections, in- 

 duced from exposure after intoxication, the effects of which, together 

 with frequent severe rheumatic affections, carry them off in about 

 twelve months after they are attacked. These and other vicissitudes of 

 their mode of life, may be supposed considerably to abridge the usual 

 term of human existence.. " One of the men," says Mr Dunlop, 

 speaking of the Wollombi blacks, " aged 55, is blind from old age.'' 

 Mr Thomas ascertained from returns he has forwarded half-yearly 

 to the government, of the births and deaths of aborigines, that there 

 are at least eight deaths to one birth. 



Infant mortality. — The great mortality during infancy is also a 

 remarkable feature among the aborigines. This circumstance is in- 

 dependent of the well-authenticated practice of infanticide, by which 



* One of the cures practised by the aborigines for this disease is abstinence 

 from animal food and drinking gum water. 



t Strzelecki, p. 347. — The remarks of this writer on the aborigines are al- 

 ways original, forcible, and far-sighted. This is probably the disease alluded to 

 by Dr Lang as having broken out among the aborigines soon after the founda- 

 tion of the colony. It resembled the smallpox, and rapidly reduced the num- 

 bers of the black population, which had been previously very considerable. — 

 (Lang'z History, second edition, i., p. 3G.) 



