[Sidenote: Vide Tables X. and Y. pp. 52 and 53.]
As regards the diseases it is easy to perceive that some predominate
over others; for instance, chronicus rheumatismus, worms, porrigo,
bronchitis chronica, phthisis pulmonalis, and others. These, of course,
in a great measure originate from the careless and dirty habits of the
semi-civilized Indians, along with their daily exposure to all sorts
of weather without having different clothing to wear in winter from
that which they have been in the habit of using during the summer; in
addition to which, their living principally upon corn and potatoes
(fish not always being procurable), which induces the production of
worms, and at the same time being a sort of food very unsuitable for
children. Scrofula is universal amongst them, and in a great measure
is produced from their near intermarriages; and it is quite a common
circumstance for a boy of 16 or 17 to marry a girl of the same age,
and very often much younger; hence the offspring of such parents
must necessarily be weak and degenerate, and in consequence of their
hereditary debility more liable to the attacks of illness. Again, those
Indians uncivilized living at a great distance in the interior, and
who come down occasionally to trade with the Hudson’s Bay Company, I
have always been given to understand were for the most part generally
healthy, much more so than those of the semi-civilized tribes. I myself
have had but little communication with them, as they seldom visit our
island, but the officers of the Company’s service, with whom I have
become acquainted, have always expressed but one opinion upon the
subject.