IIOHN EXPEDITION-ANTIIUOPOLOOY. , 
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I only saw one case of carcinoma —an epithelioma of the foot in a native at 
Oodnaclatta, who was about to submit to amputation. 
Ophthalmia was very prevalent amongst both sexes, young anrl old. Many 
had partially or completely lost the sight of one eye, and some that of both. The 
ravages of infantile inflammations are of course much aggravated by want of 
attention and cleanliness and by the pungent action of the atmosphere of smoke to 
which they are often exposed in camp, and no doubt also by the superstition that 
passing a glowing fire-stick close to the eyes will mend matters by drix'ing away 
the inflammation. The re.sult is occa.sionally irretrievable damage by the heat. 
The suggestion that a woman might have two children at a birth met with 
derisive laughter. I did, however, see at Alice Springs a young woman who had 
given birth to half-caste twins. These, I was told, she promptly disposed of, after 
what is, I believe, the usual method of infanticide, ^\z., by choking them with 
sand. 
This woman’s maternal career is worth mentioning. Her first child was a 
pure-blooded aboriginal, her next a half-caste by a Chinese father ; then came the 
half-caste European twins referred to, and lastly another pure-blooded Australian. 
She killed all of them except the half-caste Chinese.* 
I am sorry I was not able to acquire any trustworthy information concerning 
birth practices, though in Mr. Gillen’s paper will be found some references to this 
subject. Lactation is sometimes very much prolonged. At the Mission Station 
I saw a child known to be over four years of age that was still being .suckled, and 
I remendier at Port Essington an amusing instance of the same kind where a child 
of about the same age was alternately receiving sustenance from the breast and 
smoking a nati\'e made cigarette. 
A very prevalent idea, not only amongst these tribes but of frequent 
occuri’ence in Australia, is that disea.se is the result of the malignant influence of 
an enemy. This sometimes produces a strange fatalistic resignation. On a 
previous journey I saw at Tennant’s Creek a fine and robust man who had received 
a spear wound through the fleshy part of the thigh in a tribal or intertribal fight 
a few days before. Nothing could have looked healthier and more promising than 
* In .another instance the little accident of the hirth of a suspiciously light-coloured offspring of a full- 
blooded luhra was thus explained hy tlie mother in full belief that the statement of cause and effect w.as perfect^' 
ration.al, and indeed the legitimate husb.and, also a full-blooded bl.ack, w.as ])crfectly satisfied of Ids own pateridtj'.— 
“ ’Sposen lubra eat ’um flour picaninny long a pompey eat ’um too, tlicn him jump up close up whitefellow ; flour 
all day, like it, that make Tun.” Suppose the woman o.ats flour the child in the belly cats it too, and then the child 
is born closely resembling a white. 
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