Medico-legal risks encountered by medical practitioners in the practice of their profession / by John Glaister.

  • Glaister, John, 1856-1932.
Date:
[1886?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medico-legal risks encountered by medical practitioners in the practice of their profession / by John Glaister. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Tliey steal, lie, are revengeful, cunning, jealous, and, as might be expected, courageous. Other observers give quite a different description of them, describing them as frank, open, and confiding. They betray little afiection, and any sorrow they may experience is very transitory. This is well illustrated by the manner with which Billy received the news of his companion's death (with whom he had been closely associated for a long period). He was found enjoying himself by singing and beating his boomerangs when the news was broken to him, but he unconcernedly went on as before. They treat their wives very cruelly, they being made the slaves of the men. In short, their intellectual capacity seems to be on a level with that of the child; they know right and wrong, will not steal from another native, but will readily from a white man. They see nothing morally wrong in adultery, although the woman will be severely chastised by her female relatives. There seems to be a total absence of ideas of abstract morality, but they are full of superstitions, and believe in spirits. This last seems to point to a dim idea of a future existence. Dr. Lang says that they do not recognise a God, have no trace of a religion, and no idolatry. The three natives who were shown to the Society are the re- mainder of seven, four having died from pulmonary disease. At the present time the boy suffers from incipient tubercular disease of the lungs. They exhibited to the Society their singing, and mode of fighting and throwing the boomerang. Their songs are all in the minor key. BOOKS CONSULTED. 1. —The Races of Man and their Geographical Distribution. Oscar Peschel. Translation, 1876. 2. — Australian Aborigmes. James Dawson, 1881. 3. —The Mental Characteristics of Primitive Man, as exemplified by the Australian Aborigines. C. Staniland Wake, Esq., Dir. A.I. {Journal Aiifhroipo]. Instit,, vol. I., 1871, p. 74, et seq.) 4. -Australian Languages, by Rev. G. Taplin and Dr. Black; same volume, p. 84 and p. 89. 5. —Customs of the Australian Aborigines. Captain William E. Armit, P.L.S. {Journal Anthropol. lustit., vol. IX., 1880, p. 459.)