1837.] Account of the New Colony of Western Australia, 313 



and monopoly of the merchants ; a dread of scarcity of food prevailed ; 

 much fatigue, anxiety and exposure to the weather, had been under- 

 gone, and, to fill up the measure of evils, a flood took place in the rivers 

 after heavy rains, which caused them to rise from fifteen to twenty 

 feet above their usual level. All who had commenced their buildings 

 on the low ground were obliged to desert them, and commence anew 

 on higher ground. Scurvy now set in, also fever and dysentery ; these 

 diseases were mostly confined to the working classes, amongst whom 

 there was much disease and some mortality ; whilst among the higher 

 classes, who were, comparatively speaking, well provided with food 

 and lodging, and among whom temperance was more practised, there 

 was but little disease and no mortality. A fear of famine existed at 

 three different periods. Ships, however, always happily arrived in 

 good time to prevent any mischief; the crops in the second harvest 

 were more abundant than the first, and have continued to increase 

 every season, in such ratio as to satisfy every competent judge that 

 the crops of succeeding seasons will be sufficient for the whole popu- 

 lation, and render them altogether independent of supplies from with- 

 out. As the settlers got comfortably housed, and obtained vegetables 

 from their gardens, and fresh meat from the increasing flocks, the 

 scurvy gradually gave way, and at length ceased altogether. The 

 fevers became fewer, and of milder character, as the co untry became 

 cleared and drained. 



The endemic diseases appear to be a subacute form of inflammation of 

 the mucous membranes, viz. opthalmia or inflammation of the mucous 

 membrane of the eye ; dysentery, or inflammation of the mucous mem- 

 brane of the intestines, and catarrh, or inflammation or congestion of 

 the mucous membrane of the nares and air passages. Rheumatism was 

 occasionally met with during damp weather in winter and autumn ; also 

 a low fever, the gastero-enterite. Providence is here, as in all other 

 places, good and wise, and supplies remedies on the spot for the diseases 

 which occur. Thus we find the hirudo medicinalis abundant in the 

 lagoons, a well known remedy in these diseases ; also aperients, as the 

 kernel of the fruit of Zamia, and the produce of the Eucalyptus 

 mannifera ; astringents, as the red gum of the Eucalyptus resenifera 

 which much resembles dragons blood, and the bark of the wattle, par- 

 ticularly the green, or Acacia decurrens, which contain much tannin ; 

 aromatics, as the Eucalyptus piperita, and Leptospermum, pennyroyal } 

 Pulegium ; and diaphoretics, as Sassafras, Cryptocarya glaucescens # 

 No doubt many other medicinal plants may be obtained. I do not 

 mean to assert that the diseases of this country are always confined 



