_Communications with Iceland._--In the summer of 1851 I directed attention
to the communications with Iceland. I am just informed that the Danish
government will send a war steamer twice next summer to the Faroe Islands
and to Iceland, {54} calling at Leith both ways for passengers. The times
of sailing will probably be announced towards spring in the public prints.
This opportunity of visiting that strange and remarkable island in so
advantageous a manner is worthy of notice, as desirable modes of getting
there very rarely occur.
The observing traveller, in addition to the wonders of nature, should not
fail to note there the social and physical condition, and diseases of the
inhabitants. He will there find still lingering, fostered by dirt, bad
food, and a squalid way of living, the true leprosy (in Icelandic,
_spetalska_) which prevailed throughout Europe in the Middle Ages and which
now survives only there, in Norway, and in some secluded districts in
central and southern Europe. He will also note the remarkable exemption of
the Icelanders from pulmonary consumption; a fact which seems
extraordinary, considering the extreme dampness, inclemency, and
variability of the climate. But the consumptive tendency is always found to
cease north of a certain parallel of latitude.