544 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



" It is doubtful in what proportion the mortality is directly occasioned by 

 disease. Few perhaps die, in the strict sense of the term, a natural death. 

 A married person of either sex rarely dies without leaving destitute a parent, 

 a widow, or a helpless female infant. To be deprived of near relations is to 

 be deprived of every thing ; such unfortunates are usually abandoned to 

 their fate and too generally perish. A widow and two or three children left 

 under these circumstances were known to have died of inanition, from the 

 neglect and apathy of their neighbours, who jeered at the commanders of 

 our ships on the failure of their humane endeavours to save what the Esqui- 

 maux considered as worthless. 



" Our first communication with these people at Winter Island gave us a 

 more favourable impression of their general health than subsequent experi- 

 ence confirmed. There however they were not free from sickness. A 

 catarrhal affection in the month of February became generally prevalent, 

 from which they readily recovered after the exciting causes, intemperance 

 ,and exposure to wet, had ceased to operate. A solitary instance of pleurisy 

 also occurred, which probably might have ended fatally but for timely assist- 

 ance. Our intercourse with them in the summer was more interrupted ; but 

 at our occasional meetings they were observed to be enjoying excellent 

 health. It is probable that their certain supplies of food, and the nomade 

 kind of life they lead in its pursuit during that season, are favourable to 

 health. Nutrition goes on actively, and an astonishing increase of strength 

 and fulness is acquired. Active diseases might now be looked for, but that 

 the powers of nature are providentially exerted with effect. 



" The unlimited use of stimulating animal food, on which they are from 

 infancy fed, induces at an early age a highly plethoric state of the vascular 

 system. The weaker over-distended vessels of the nose quickly yield to the 

 increased impetus of the blood, and an active hermorrhage relieves the subject. 

 As the same causes continue to be applied in excess at frequent intervals, 

 and are followed by similar effects, a kind of vicarious hemorrhage at length 

 becomes established by habit; superseding the intervention of art, and 

 having no small share in maintaining a balance in the circulating system. 

 The phenomenon is too constant to have escaped the observation of those 

 who have visited the different Esquimaux people ; a party of them has 

 indeed rarely been seen that did not exhibit two or three instances of the 

 fact. 



" About the month of September, the approach of winter induced the Es- 



