APPENDIX. 



145 



of ornament. Their teeth are generally good, regular, and healthy, 

 arising in all probability from the system being free from any con- 

 stitutional taint. 



The viscera of the thorax were healthy, the heart particularly so, 

 with its valves and columna carnosa in good order ; the lower part 

 of the thorax and the Vv^liole parietes of the abdomen were unusually 

 expanded ; the liver very large though healthy, occupying the right 

 hypochondriac and lumbar, the epigastric, and left hypochondriac 

 regions ; the spleen remarkably small ; the stomach of a moderate 

 size, and containing some muscles and Hmpets in a half-digested 

 state ; the intestines were filled with flatus, which probably took 

 place after death. The large size of the abdomen is to be referred 

 to the squatting position these people assume, the knees and thighs 

 being brought up against the lower part of the belly, force the 

 viscera and intestines upward and forward, thereby distending the 

 lower part of the thorax and front of the abdomen. Here is a 

 peculiarity from habit becoming inherent in the constitution, and 

 descending to posterity, as the children, male and female, are born 

 with large bellies. In like manner Chinese children, from their 

 parents' custom of compressing the feet, are born with them remark- 

 ably small. 



Besides distending the abdomen mechanically — to this bent posi- 

 tion is to be traced the enlarged state of the abdominal viscera, the 

 passage of blood to the extremities being obstructed ; an unusual 

 quantity is thereby determined to, and circulated in, the coeliac and 

 mesenteric arteries ; the want of support from dress is also to be 

 taken into account. From this stretched and distended state of the 

 abdomen, separating the fibres of the oblique and transverse muscles, 

 and the open state of the inguinal rings, these people must be 

 peculiarly liable on any exertion to ventral hernia : these passages I 

 found open in this individual ; and they appeared to be in the same 

 state in other men whom I examined. Cardiac affections mostly 

 prevail among those w^ho are subject to \dolent exercise, as porters, 

 carriers, and artillerymen. The healthy state of this heart, which 

 it is probable will be generally the case among the Fuegians, is to be 

 imputed to their moderate exertions. In their canoes they are 

 employed fishing or paddling ; in their wigvv^ams, which are seldom 

 many yards from the beach, cooking or making small wares of the 

 bones or skins of beasts. The cremaster muscle was strong and 



