The aborigines of Tasmania / by H. Ling Roth ; assisted by Marion E. Butler and Jas. Backhouse Walker ; with a chapter on the osteology by J.G. Garson.

  • Henry Ling Roth
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The aborigines of Tasmania / by H. Ling Roth ; assisted by Marion E. Butler and Jas. Backhouse Walker ; with a chapter on the osteology by J.G. Garson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    . . . bear constant exposure to bad weather; when such sets in, they will cower round their fires, under the lee of their break-winds, . . . until a change takes place. Calder, who has gone more fully into the particulars of their illnesses, writes as follows (J. A. I. pp. 14, 15): “Their rapid declen- sion after the colony was founded is traceable, as far as our proofs allow us to judge, to the prevalence of epidemic disorders. . . . The naked savage soon discovered the comforts of clothing, and such things as blan- kets and clothing were often given them by the settlers; . . . but. . . he often kept his prize no longer than it suited the idle habits of the wanderer to carry it. Hence he was wrapped up like a mummy one week, and was as naked as a new-born infant the next. The climate of Tasmania is a variable one, . . . there are very rapid changes of temperature, from moderate heat to coolness. . . . Now any person, whether savage or civ ilized, who wraps up at one time, and goes perfectly naked at another, exposed to any frequent changes of temperature, ... is assuredly laying the foundation of fatal consumptive complaints, from which (such was the peculiar constitution of the Tasmanian savage) almost immediate death was certain, and whenever he took cold it seems to have settled on his lungs from the first. . . . Robinson says ‘ they are universally susceptible of cold, and unless the utmost providence is taken to check its progress at an early period, it fixes itself on the lungs, and gradually assumes the complaint spoken of, i.e. the Catarrhal Fever (Report, May 24, 1831). Again he says: “The number of aboriginals along the Western Coast has been considerably reduced since the time of my first visit [1830]; a mortality has raged amongst them, which, . . . with other causes, has rendered their numbers very inconsiderable (July 29, 1832).” Abnormalities. Under this heading we can only give some information collected by La Billardiere. In Vol. ii. ch. x. p. 49, he remarks : “ In one of them [young women] it was observed that the right breast acquired its full size, while the left was still perfectly flat.” In ch. xi. p. 76, he says: “ We observed some [natives] in whom one of the middle teeth of the upper jaw was wanting, and others in whom both were gone,” and in the same chapter (p. 76), “ In many the navel appeared puffed up, and very prominent, but we assured ourselves, that this deformity was not occasioned by aQ?hernia. Perhaps it is owing to the too great distance at which the umbilical cord is separated from the abdomen.” Physical Powers. Peron seems to have taken considerable trouble to ascertain the true state of the physical powers of the aborigines, and collected, so far as he could, all the details which would in any way tend to throw light on this subject. He records (pp. 235-236) that on one occasion Maurouard, one of the midshipmen, on Bruny Island “ had proposed to one amongst them, who seemed the most robust, to wrestle with him ; and that the V. D. Lander had accepted the challenge; was several times thrown by the French middy, and forced to acknowledge his inferiority.” On another occasion, also on Bruny Island, he relates (p. 256): “It was not long
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