32 



rnestic and agricultural labours. Others believe., 

 on the contrary, that they shall fortify their 

 health, and attain a happier old age, by becom- 

 ing mothers when very young. According as 

 the Indians adopt the one or the other of these 

 systems, the abortive medicaments are adminis- 

 tered at different periods." In reflecting on 

 these selfish calculations among savages, we 

 think we may congratulate the civilized nations 

 of Europe, that they have hitherto had no know- 

 ledge of ecbolics in appearance so little injurious 

 to health. The introduction of these drinks 

 would perhaps increase the depravity of man- 

 ners in towns, where one quarter of the children 

 see the light only to be abandoned by their 

 parents. The new abortives however might 

 possibly occasion the same danger in our cli- 

 mates, as the use of savine, aloes, and the 

 essential oils of cinnamon and cloves. The 

 robust constitution of the savage, in whom the 

 different systems are more independent of each 

 other, resists better and for a longer time an 

 excess of stimulants, and the use of deleterious 

 agents, than the feeble constitution of civilized 

 man. I thought it necessary to enter into these 

 pathological details, far from agreeable as they 

 are, because they make known a part of the 

 causes, which in the rudest state of our species^ 

 as well as in a high degree of civilization, render 

 the progress of population almost imperceptible. 



