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Among people whose dyet is so simple and plain Distempers cannot be suppos'd to be so frequent as among us Europeans, we observd but few and those cheifly cutaneous as erysipelas and scaly eruptions upon the skin. This last was almost if not quite advanc'd to Leprosy; the people who were in that state were secluded from society, living by themselves each in a small house built in some unfrequented place where they were daily supplyd with provisions; whither these had any hopes of releif or were doom'd in this manner to languish out a life of solitude we did not learn. Some but very few had ulcers upon different parts of their bodies, most of which lookd very virulent; the people who were afflicted with them did not however seem much to regard them, leaving them intirely without any application even to keep off the flies. Acute distempers no doubt they have but while we stayd upon the Island they were very uncommon, possibly in the rainy season they are more frequent. Among the numerous acquaintance I had upon the Island only one was taken ill during our stay; her I visited
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol.1) 411, February 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-164.html