Some elderly people are afflicted with asthma; and hoarsenesses now and
then occur in the winter and spring.
The stone and gout are entirely unknown amongst the Laplanders.
Swellings of the lower extremities are uncommon, as these people are in
the habit of swathing their legs, which renders them all slender and
well shaped. All dropsical complaints indeed are very rare, though I did
meet with one case of this kind.
Of _tenesmus_ I happened to hear of but a single instance, though the
Laplanders eat so much cheese and drink water.
Disorders in the stomach are not uncommon, which are frequently attended
with _diarrh[oe]a_, and in some years this disease is contagious.
The specimens of minerals which I had collected in the course of my
tour were now become numerous, and consisted of the following articles.
1. An alum, as I presume, of a club shape, without any taste, seeming as
it were dissolved in fluor, from the mountains to the north of the lake
Skalk, near Kiomitis. (See _vol._ 1. _p._ 267.)
2. Native alum in its own matrix; from the same place. (_Alumen
nativum._ _Syst. Nat._ _vol._ 3. 101).
3. Native alum, rough and green, separate from its matrix; from the same
mountains.
4. Alum like the former in appearance, but not salt, perhaps a
calcareous stone; found not far from the same place.