46 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
ary work, and by those who patronize them, that 
it would be of the highest advantage for one going 
to an uncivilized people, to be acquainted with the 
qualities and use of medicine. 
A degree of proficiency that would qualify him 
to practise in his native country, is not necessary. 
But so much knowledge as would enable him to 
be exceedingly serviceable to the people, to win 
their confidence and affection, and to confer on 
him an influence the most important and advan¬ 
tageous, in accomplishing the great objects of his 
mission, might be acquired prior to his departure 
from England, without in an injurious degree divert¬ 
ing his attention from other pursuits. I speak 
from painful experience of deficiency in the means 
for meeting the necessities of my own family, as 
well as those of the people among whom I have 
resided. I know they still exist, and therefore 
express myself more strongly than I should other¬ 
wise feel warranted to do. 
The introduction of Christianity has been fol¬ 
lowed by a greater alteiation in the general cir¬ 
cumstances of the people, than even the medical 
treatment of the sick. The change has been 
highly advantageous to the sufferers, who formerly 
experienced the greatest neglect, and often the 
most brutal cruelty. As soon as an individual 
was affected with any disorder, he was considered 
as under the ban of the gods: by some crime, or 
the influence of some enemy, he was supposed 
to have become obnoxious to their anger, of which 
his malady was the result. 
These ideas, relative to the origin of diseases, had 
a powerful tendency to stifle every feeling of sym¬ 
pathy and compassion, and to restrain all from the 
exercise of those acts of kindness that are so grate- 
