230 
tribe reported on real, or did they only add a belief in a new 
sort of magic to their old superstition 1 
4. Are the Aborigines apt at, and did they make rapid pro¬ 
gress in, learning the elements of knowledge h 
5. Is there any physical bar which prevents the race from 
elevating itself in the social scale ? 
6. Has any existing civilized race acquired knowledge of 
the arts of civilization in less than several generations ? And 
if civilization be not gradually and spontaneously developed 
is it possible to force it rapidly on any particular race without 
causing its destruction or decay ? 
7. On first contact with a civilized race aboriginal races 
usually retire or give way, but no decrease in numbers is at 
first perceptible. At what period did the decrease in number 
of the race reported on become perceptible h 
8. Was any taint in the blood or other cause of decay known 
to exist in the aboriginal race before they came in contact 
with civilized men ? 
9. Were the women in the habit of using any particular 
food affecting their reproductive powers ? (The Maoris do.) 
10. Can the decay of the race be partially attributable to 
sudden change in the habits of life, want of the excitements 
proper to savage life, and listlessness resulting from passions 
subdued (but not eradicated), in obedience to the commands 
of the Christian religion and enlightened laws ? such change 
having been enforced before “ culture ” and a knowledge of 
the arts of civilization has provided other pursuits and 
enjoyments. 
11. What effect, in causing disease, has a partial change of 
diet and dress ? f.e., is disease produced by the occasional use 
of European clothing and a sudden return to the nakedness of 
savage life ? by temporary residence in towns and a return to 
the smoky, unventilated cabins used by savages ? 
12. What have been the effects of scrofula, smallpox, 
typhus, and other diseases unknown before the arrival of 
white men ? 
13. What remedies were used by the Aborigines ? or did 
they refuse all remedies ? 
