# The Aborigines of Victoria/Volume 1/Chapter 9

Diseases.
Long before the Europeans came to mix with the Aboriginal natives of Australia the latter were afflicted with various diseases—some resembling those that are generally regarded as having had their origin in Europe and Asia. They had, as a common complaint, ophthalmia, brought on by exposure to the weather. Over the dusty dry plains of the interior, which cast back the rays of the sun with an intensity that cannot be believed until it is experienced, they were sometimes compelled to wander; and the heat, and the dust, and the stinging of the flies and mosquitos, almost blinded them.
"The poor winking people of New Holland," as they are called in Dampier's Voyage, "have their eyelids always half-closed, to keep the flies out of their eyes, they being so troublesome here that no fanning will keep them from coming to one's face; and without the assistance of both hands to keep them off, they will creep into one's nostrils, and mouth too, if the lips are not shut very close. So that from their infancy, being thus annoyed with these insects, they do never open their eyes as other people, and therefore they cannot see far, unless they hold up their heads, as if they were looking at somewhat over them." It was on the 4th January 1688, in the height of the Australian summer, that Dampier saw the natives of the north-west coast, and his straightforward, uncompromising language was no doubt justified by what he saw.
Sir Thomas Mitchell found a native on the River Bogan afflicted with ophthalmia, and again on the Lachlan one almost blind from ophthalmia or filth. The complaint, combined with neglect and exposure, sometimes causes a native to lose the sight of one or both eyes. In the low, flat country drained by the Murray, Murrumbidgee, and Lachlan, this disease is common.
A very fatal disease, which nearly all writers describe as small-pox, was prevalent very many years ago, and carried off great numbers. Mr. Gason says that the Cooper's Creek natives call it Moora-moora, and that they were evidently subject to it before coming into contact with Europeans, as many old men and women are pock-marked in the face and body. They state that a great number died of this disease; and Mr. Gason has been shown, on the top of a sandhill, seventy-four graves, said to be those of men, women, and children who perished by this fell disorder.
​On the Lower Murray and near Lake Alexandrina the blacks have a tradition that some sixty years ago a terrible disease came down the River Murray, and carried off the natives by hundreds. This must have been small-pox, as many of the old people now have their faces pitted who suffered from the disease in childhood. The destruction of life was so great as to seriously diminish the tribes. The natives always represent that before this scourge arrived they were much more numerous. They say that so many died that they could not perform the usual funeral rites for the dead, but were compelled to bury them at once out of the way. Mr. Taplin, who makes these statements, thinks that there must have been more than one visitation of this kind, judging from the age of those who are pock-marked.
Mr. Peter Beveridge says many adults on the Lower Murray are marked with small-pox, which he thinks may have been contracted by the natives in the neighbourhood of Sydney, and passed on from tribe to tribe. The people state that their sufferings from this disease were fearful in the extreme, and that the deaths were so numerous that they could not inter the bodies, but left them where they died, and moved their camps to a new locality. This was repeated, they relate, day after day, until the whole atmosphere was tainted with the decomposing bodies. They thought that not one would escape death, and they had arrived at such a pitch of misery as to be careless whether they died or not. When the hot summer set in, however, the distemper gradually abated; but it was years before they got over the panic. This seems to have been the only great terror that is remembered by them, and the only period they can indicate as one in which great numbers died of the same disease.
Mr. Jno. G. Clapham, of Casterton, states, in a letter to Mr. Nathaniel Munro, to whom I am indebted for much assistance, that in the year 1841 he went to reside on the River Murray, at its entrance into Lake Alexandrina, and he noticed among the different tribes resident on the river and the lake many adults deeply pitted with small-pox. The blacks described to Mr. Clapham the manner of attack and death, and said that the disease came down the river and continued its course along the lake to the sea-coast, carrying off great numbers. They added that the tribes have never recovered the loss of life sustained, but have since remained comparatively few.
In his journey, Sir Thomas Mitchell found nearly everywhere traces of the small-pox; and many of the people of the tribes inhabiting the large area drained by the River Darling were marked with it. He saw pock-marked men on the Bogan, at Fort Bourke, and all along the course of the Darling down to near its junction with the Murray. At Fort Bourke, the marks on the people were not larger than pins' heads—in other places marks of confluent small-pox were seen. The disease had raged amongst them with extraordinary virulence; the people at Fort Bourke at the time of Sir Thomas Mitchell's visit represented only the remnant of a tribe, and it was believed that small-pox had nearly depopulated the Darling. The females were numerous in proportion to the males, and were not secluded by the men, as in other places where they ​were more in demand. On a little hill, on the banks of the Lower Darling, Sir Thomas saw three large tombs, of an oval shape, and in length about twelve feet. Each stood in the centre of an artificial hollow, the mound or tomb in the middle being about five feet high, and on each of them were piled numerous withered branches and limbs of trees, no inappropriate emblems of mortality. These tombs, Sir Thomas believed, covered the remains of the tribe swept off by small-pox—the marks of which were left on all that remained alive.
Collins states that small-pox killed great numbers of the natives shortly after the settlemeut was formed in New South Wales [1788]. Numerous dead bodies were found in excavations of the rocks, or lying upon the beaches and points of the different coves. Many families had been swept off. Whether it had ever appeared before could not be ascertained, but the name they gave it—gal-gal-la—indicated a previous acquaintance with it. The name given to this disease at Raffles Bay is, according to Dr. Wilson, Oie-boir.
I have been thus particular in collecting information respecting the ravages of the small-pox, because it shows in what manner the numbers of the native race have been reduced in consequence of the introduction by the whites of one contagious disease. Other diseases have been brought by the white man which have killed many thousands; but this terrible malady, so frightful in its effects whether the sufferer lived or died, and so potent in causing destruction, struck the natives with terror. The mother beheld her children dead or disfigured; the husband saw his wife, if she lived, with a body that was the more loathsome because it recalled every day and every time he looked upon her the horrors through which his tribe had passed. Their graves were multiplied in numbers until at last the dead were so many that graves could not be provided for them; and the bodies were left on the banks of rivers, on the sands of the coast, and in the depths of the forest, to rot or be eaten by the dogs. Nothing can be imagined more likely to dispirit a people, to drive them to despair, and to cause them to lose all hope, than such a visitation as that which struck down the natives during the period immediately subsequent to the formation of the settlement at Point Maskeleyne. That it was introduced by the whites is certain, though none of the colonists that accompanied Governor Phillip appear to have suffered from it.
"In the month of April 1789," says Bennett, "the dead bodies of numbers of natives were seen in the bush, and in various places about the shores of the harbour; and others were found in a dying condition from a disease which they called gal-gal-la. The Governor, thinking this a favorable opportunity to conciliate and again open friendly relations with them, ordered two sick children and a man who was found nursing them under a rock in the harbour to be brought to the camp. The medical officers at once pronounced the disease to be small-pox. The presence amongst the Aborigines of that dreadful scourge was considered exceedingly remarkable, seeing that it could not have been communicated to them by the whites, having never made its appearance among ​the colonists. Both the black children recovered, but the man died shortly afterwards. Col. Collins gives a most affecting picture of the devotion and attention to the children shown by this poor savage, who was not their parent, but who, in a very short time, endeared himself to the strangers by whom he was surrounded, and died eight days after he was seized with the disease, to the regret of all who had witnessed the amiability and gentleness of his deportment. Not one case of the disorder occurred among the white people either afloat or on shore, although there were several young children in the settlement; but a North American Indian, who happened to be on board the schooner Supply, took the disease and died. This fact would seem to indicate that the lower vitality of the colored races sometimes offers a field in which the seeds of disease will fully develop themselves, even when they are not sufficiently vigorous to germinate under conditions afforded by the more robust and enduring constitutions of white people. There was no trace to be discovered among the Aborigines that such a disease as small-pox had ever visited the country before, and therefore it is only reasonable to conclude that the infection, in a latent state, must have been introduced by the newly-arrived colonists, although they themselves escaped its ravages. Their immunity from the scourge might have arisen either from some peculiarity in their system induced by the changes of climate which they had lately undergone, the food on which they existed, or, which is more likely, the superior vitality of their race. The numbers of the Aborigines who fell before this dreadful disease must have been very great. Famine had prepared them for pestilence, and the pestilence which smote them was the more terrible, because, being wholly unknown, it found them entirely unprepared with even such simple remedies as those with which savages frequently combat diseases of a very severe character."
The small-pox appears to have followed the tribes along the courses of all the rivers, both on the north and on the south, and to have reached those living near the mouth of the Murray and the Lakes some years after it was first heard of in Sydney. The traditions of the natives respecting its ravages may be accepted as accurate—indeed their burial-places are the dumb memorials of the visitation; but the exact period of its appearance in Victoria cannot of course be ascertained from the blacks.
This disease undoubtedly, besides reducing the numbers, effected a great alteration in the condition of the Aborigines generally, and led probably to the breaking up of some tribes—the remnants coalescing for protection from inimical tribes and for the conservation of their common interests.
It is now difficult to ascertain the nature of the diseases which existed amongst the natives prior to the colonization of Australia by the whites. Those that are now named as most fatal appear to be exactly of that character which would be induced by the change of habits incidental to their contact with Europeans. For instance, it is stated by many writers that they are afflicted with rheumatism, colds, and pulmonary diseases; but, in consequence of their association with the whites, they have altered their mode of living. ​They wear clothes when they can get them; their food is different; they indulge in spirituous liquors, and they are alternately enjoying some of the comforts introduced by the colonists and resorting to their original customs—at one time too warmly clad perhaps, at another time lying out in the bush, exposed to all weathers—not taking any such precautions as they would have taken when in their natural state. A native living in the wilds of the bush, and uncontaminated by contact with the whites, was probably as healthy as any of the animals that he chased. If he survived the accidents of childhood, and did not break down under the trying ordeal through which he had to pass on being "made a young man," he was for the rest of his life almost invulnerable to the indigenous diseases of his country. That the natives were hardy is unquestionable. Sir Thomas Mitchell says that one "freezing night the natives stript off all their clothes (their usual custom) previous to lying down to sleep in the open air, their bodies being doubled round a few burning reeds." And this at a time when the earth was white with a hoar-frost.
All that can be collected now relating to diseases bears no reference to the time when the blacks were in a state of nature, and must consequently be received with caution. I have shown elsewhere that a native rapidly recovers from wounds that would prove fatal to men of other races, and this appears to me to be inconsistent with the statement that they are naturally of a weak constitution and of inferior vitality.
"The principal diseases," says Mr. Taplin, "to which these [the Narrinyeri] tribes of Aborigines are subject are of a scrofulous nature. The tendency to tuberculosis is seen in childhood in the form of tabes mesenterica, and sometimes of hydrocephalus. Towards the age of puberty it is developed as pulmonary consumption. Sometimes it is carried off before the age of puberty by induration and ulceration of the glands of the neck. The above are the most fatal diseases amongst the Narrinyeri; the majority of deaths are caused by them. The other diseases to which they are subject are liver complaint, diarrhœa, and dysentery, and, rarely, brain fever. I have never known a case of intermittent fever amongst them. Of course they are subject to inflammation of the bowels, kidneys, liver, lungs, and throat. . . . . I have never known a native to have the measles. This disease has at different times prevailed amongst the whites; but the blacks, although constantly about the dwellings of those laboring under it, never caught it. . . . . I have never known a case of scarlatina amongst the Aborigines, although it was very prevalent some years ago amongst the whites; and I have reason to believe that a great deal of clothing from houses infected by the disease was given to the natives. The natives are very subject to epidemic influenza, which they call nruwi."
The Rev. Mr. Bulmer informs me in a letter that the diseases most prevalent amongst the blacks are rheumatism of the joints, bronchitis and other affections of the lungs, dysentery, and syphilis. No doubt, he says, their mode of living ​tends to induce these diseases. They expose themselves to all kinds of weather; they will sleep without any covering; and their conduct in other respects is such as to bring on diseases of the worst description.
On the Government Stations in Victoria, where considerable numbers of Aborigines are now located, and where their ailments are treated by professional gentlemen who report regularly to the Board for the Protection of Aborigines, the most common diseases are catarrhs, influenza, pneumonia, chronic bronchitis, phthisis, rheumatism, glandular affections, inflammation of the kidneys or liver, lumbago, tabes mesenterica (in one case with chorea), eczematous affections (as psoriasis, &c.), hydatid tumours in the lungs, &c., low intermittent fever, ophthalmia; whooping-cough, affecting adults as well as children; gonorrhœa, and syphilitic diseases. The natives are not free either in these establishments from prevailing epidemics, as measles, scarlet fever, &c.
There is one complaint which seems to be indigenous. Collins mentions it. He says that the natives living on the sea-coast, who feed chiefly on fish, have a disorder greatly resembling the itch. They term it Djee-ball-djee-ball. It was sometimes virulent, and those afflicted with it were rendered loathsome. Mr. Taplin says this disease amongst the Narrinyeri is called Wirrullume, and resembles pustular itch, but is not communicable to Europeans; even half-castes seldom have it, although they may sleep with persons suffering from it. The application of sulphur, he adds, is a specific against the Wirrullume. Mr. Gason reports that a cutaneous disease, which he thinks is the itch, and called by the Dieyerie people Wittcha, is prevalent at Cooper's Creek. The symptoms are innumerable small pimples all over the body, causing considerable irritation, only to be temporarily allayed by rubbing the parts affected with a sharp instrument or stone—the hand alone being insufficient to afford relief. It is very contagious, spreading from one person throughout the camp, and is probably caused by a general want of cleanliness and allowing mangy dogs to lie with them. They are subject to this disease once a year.
The late Mr. Thomas stated that this kind of leprosy, or itch, was called by the natives of Victoria Bubburum; and that they had it always amongst them. He knew scarcely one above twelve years of age that was not affected with it. He added—"All animals, dogs, cats, and even opossums, if kept by the blacks as pets, are soon affected with it; the animals lose all their hair, and soon show only a bare skin."
Boils are common, too, amongst the natives in some parts. Mr. Gason says that a disease—Mirra—afflicts every native once in his life—sometimes at three years of age, but more frequently at fourteen or thereabouts. The symptoms are large blind boils, under the arms, in the groin, or on the breast or thighs, varying in size from a hen's egg to that of an emu's egg. The complaint endures for months, and in some instances for years, before it is eradicated, and during its presence the patient is generally so much enfeebled as to be unable to procure food—indeed he is often rendered quite helpless. The only remedy employed is the application of hot ashes to the parts affected.
Mr. John Green informs me that he has observed the blacks to suffer from a disease which is obscure in its origin, and develops symptoms not observed ​amongst Europeans. A native will sometimes begin to mope. He may have a slight cold, or there may he nothing in his appearance to indicate any kind of sickness, but he sits over the fire, and will not move if he can help it. He does not complain, but he appears to be ill notwithstanding. This may continue for as long as six weeks. As soon as the lungs are attacked—and, sooner or later, in all such cases, the lungs begin to exhibit signs of disease—the patient rapidly sinks and dies. Recoveries, he says, under treatment by Europeans at even an early stage of the disorder are not common. Sometimes, but rarely, a black will recover without medical treatment of any kind.
The Right Reverend Dr. Rosendo Salvado, Bishop of Port Victoria, in a most interesting and valuable report, addressed to the Honorable the Colonial Secretary of West Australia, makes mention of a case not very dissimilar to that just described. He says:—"A strong and healthy young native, who never in his life knew what strong liquors or European vices were, is admitted into a private house, mission, or establishment; for some time he goes on well, gay and full of life; but in a few months, or perhaps after a couple of years, a fatal melancholy takes possession of him. Being asked what is the matter with him, he answers, 'Nothing!' 'Do you feel sick?' 'No, sir.' 'Do you suffer any pain?' 'No, sir.' 'Why are you not so cheerful as before?' 'I do not know.' He takes his meals as regularly as ever, he has no fever, yet he daily and almost at sight loses his flesh, strength, and health. What is the technical name of such a disease? Perhaps consumption, perhaps liver complaint. Let it be so; but is there no remedy for such diseases? Are there no preventives of their causes? Yes, there are; but, nevertheless, that native died shortly after."
The good bishop consulted several medical gentlemen respecting the maladies which afflict the natives, but he could get no satisfactory information as to their origin or the best mode of treatment.
One doctor confessed that, as a general rule, every time he had taken any sick native under his especial care, he succeeded only, he regretted to say, in killing him the sooner. Dr. Salvado has observed that when a native has been under treatment by a medical man in a hospital or a private house, he has made no improvement, but when consigned to the care of his friends and taken to the bush, he has rapidly recovered.
It is undoubtedly true that the modes of treatment adopted by Europeans are not, as a rule, successful, if the black be at all uuder the influence of his own people. In the first place, there is the feeling of loneliness; he is separated from his companions, and his spirits droop. Then the old superstitions are strong upon him. His hair, perhaps, has been cut, his old clothes taken away from him, and with them probably some valued possession on which his heart is set. He fears the white man, dreads his medicines, and shrinks from the outward applications which may, for aught he knows, be possessed of secret properties that will cause his destruction. He sighs for a return to his old friends and his old pursuits; and it is highly probable that he neglects every precaution that his medical attendant has enjoined as necessary for his recovery. The European doctor, indeed, is always at a great disadvantage when dealing ​with the natives; and though medical men are in Victoria most zealous and painstaking at all the Aboriginal Stations, they are thwarted continually by the people for whose benefit they use their utmost skill. A blackfellow, sent to a hospital for treatment, has informed me confidentially that he was being poisoned. Another has said, "Doctor no good," and some have shown the strongest predilection for quack medicines. They seem to know instinctively what is genuine and what is not; and they cling as strongly to the latter as any of the Europeans. They seem, too, to have the same regard and respect for irregular practitioners as the whites; and some will greedily take medicine from the hands of a person who pretends to a knowledge of physic when they will actually refuse the draught that medical skill has made ready for their cure.
They have in their natural state a firm belief in the methods of cure adopted by their own doctors. Mr. Wilhelmi says that amongst the diseases which afflict them most often are "sores, diarrhœa, colds, and headache. For removing these, or partially curing them for the time, they apply outward remedies, some of which appear to be effective. The chief ones are rubbing, pressing, and treading even upon the afflicted parts of the body, in particular the belly and the back; tightening of the belt, and also of the band which they usually wear round the head; bandaging the diseased part; sprinkling or washing it with cold water in case of fever or inflammation. Sores or wounds are generally left to take their course, or the utmost done is to tie something tight round them, or, if inflammation has ensued, to sprinkle cold water upon them. Bleeding of the lower arm they apply in cases of headache. A most extraordinary remedy against headache I saw applied in 1849, in the case of a woman, who submitted to having her head so cut up by another woman with pieces of broken glass that the blood actually dropped through her thick bushy hair. The cure by bleeding is confined to the males only, and is frequently applied during the hot season. They do not allow the blood to run on the ground, but upon the body of some other man, directing the arm in such a manner that the stream forms a number of small cross lines, in consequence of which the body assumes the appearance of being covered with a tight-fitting network of very small meshes. The object of the custom partly is, as stated above, to act as a cure for headache and inflammation, and partly also to promote the growth of the young people, and to preserve the strength and vigor of the aged ones. . . . . . The women may be present at the operation of bleeding. Whenever engaged in this or certain other operations, the Witarna is put in motion, to prevent young unmarried people from unwittingly surprising them. The natives have also their regular doctors, called Mintapas, who pretend to be able to remove, by sucking, sickness out of the body. They put their lips to the pit of the stomach in case of general disease, and to the suffering part when confined to any fixed spot, and, after having sucked for some time, pull out of their mouths a small piece of wood or bone, pretending that this is the body of the disease, which had been communicated by some evil-disposed person, and now been extracted by them. So superstitious are these ignorant children of Nature, that they have the fullest faith in these absurdities, and passionately ​defend them against any one expressing the least doubt respecting them, or hinting even that the Mintapa might have put the piece of wood or bone into his mouth previously."
The Rev. Mr. Taplin refers to the vigorous squeezings and kneadings of the native doctors. Sometimes a patient will groan when he is under treatment, so severe are the manipulations, and the cure is indeed often harder to bear than the wiwirri (disease) itself. For rheumatic affections the Narrinyeri employ a vapour bath. They heat stones in the same manner as for cooking, and the patient is placed on a sort of stage made with sticks. The hot stones are put under the stage, the sick person is covered up with rugs, all but his head, wet water-weeds are put on the hot stones, and the space below the stage is made as close as possible. The steam ascends, and soon the sufferer is enveloped in it. This method is said to be effectual.
Sometimes their practices are strange enough. Mr. Taplin has seen a grey-bearded old man, stark naked, performing a solemn dance before his sick son, singing and beating time with the Tartengk. This business will continue perhaps for an hour, the old man being firmly convinced that his labors will result in a perfect cure. The Kuldukke—men-priests, sorcerers, or doctors—are imposters, and rob the poor natives of their food, in order that they may live in idleness. They pretend to every kind of skill in treating diseases; and use the superstitions of the natives to their own great advantage. And it appears that the women are the chief supporters and believers in the Kuldukkes. Without their favor and countenance, the arts and impostures of this class would fail to support them.
​The doctors (Koonkie) of the Dieyerie people are like the Kuldukkes of the Narrinyeri. They are chosen apparently partly by the suffrages of the people, but a Koonkie must have seen the devil (Kootchee) before he is eligible for election. Mr. Gason relates how a man or a woman becomes a doctor. If any among the young have had nightmare or an unpleasant dream, the particulars are stated to the tribe, and if they are satisfied that the young person has seen the devil, election to the office of Koonkie is at once approved of. The males, however, are not allowed to practise until after initiation. Indeed they are not deemed proficient until they have undergone the rites and ceremonies appropriate to that event. When any one is ill, the Koonkie examines him, feels the parts affected, and rubs them and sucks them until he ascertains the cause of the injury. He then retires. During his absence he provides himself with a piece of wood about one or two inches in length, and at once returns to the camp, where he procures a lump of red-hot charcoal. He rubs the charcoal in his hands to warm them, and he feels the disordered parts again; and, after a little manœuvring, he seems to bring out the piece of stick (which he had provided himself with) from the patient's body. This causes great rejoicing, and all believe in the skill of the Koonkie. He repeats this performance, bringing out of the body twine, or charcoal, or whatever he may have had an opportunity of procuring with the least trouble. Mr. Gason has seen a native who was quite ill actually cry for Koonkie, and, after being treated in this manner, appear to recover. Should the patient not recover, Koonkie tells the people that some Koonkie of another tribe, possessing more skill, has taken away from him the power that was given by the devil; and every one is satisfied. When a Koonkie is ill, he calls in another Koonkie to practise on him. Mr. Gason adds that the Dieyerie natives treat sores, cuts, bruises, and the like, if slight, by applying dirt to the part affected, and, if severe, hot ashes. In cases of any kind of sting, leaves of bushes, heated at the fire, are applied to the part stung. The leaves are made quite hot—as hot as the patient can bear them, and the cure is said to be effectual.
Mr. Stanbridge found the like practices to prevail amongst the natives of the north-western parts of Victoria. The doctor receives his special gifts while in a trance, lasting two days or more, when he visits the world of spirits. He is more reasonable in some respects than the doctors of the Lower Murray, Port Lincoln, and Cooper's Creek. He occasionally administers a decoction of a fleshy-rooted geranium, the only root used medicinally; but, like them, he bleeds in the arm with a sharp flint. Incantations, however, to which all maladies are ascribed, are likewise the most powerful curatives. Mr. Stanbridge describes the operations of the doctors:—"The patient is seated in front of the operator, who utters a monotonous chant, makes passes by drawing his hands downwards over the part affected, and at intervals rubbing and blowing upon it. At the conclusion, supposing the disorder to be rheumatism, hot ashes are applied; but as incantation loses its power by the presence of a third person, it is very seldom, and only by accident, that the ceremony is witnessed."
​The natives of the Macleay River (Queensland) bleed themselves, and cook and eat the blood, which they believe will cure them of all ailments. The bleeding is carefully done, a piece of broken shell being used as the cutting instrument. Another revolting practice is mentioned as common amongst the Macleay River tribes in cases of illness:—"The wife or gin of the sick man procures a hollow conjeboi leaf, and a strong piece of string made of opossum fur closely twisted; she then draws the string violently backwards and forwards against her gums, until they are terribly lacerated and bleed profusely. She spits out the blood, as it exudes, into the conjeboi leaf, and continues to saw her gums until she has obtained a considerable quantity of blood, which is then swallowed by the sick man."
Belief and hope are often more powerful in their effects than the medicines of the pharmacopœia. The native believes in the curative properties of his vapour bath, his decoction of geranium, his bleedings, his kneadings and pressings and treadings; the sucking of the parts affected; the existence of pieces of wood or twine or bone in his body; in the power of the doctor to extract them, and in the wild incantations and dances of the old men; and the hope which is engendered by his unfaltering faith strengthens him, and he recovers.
Absurd as many of their practices may seem, revolting as some of them are, they are not more absurd or revolting than the methods of cure adopted by the more ignorant among the peasants of Europe.
The following letters relating to the diseases of the Aborigines appeared in the first report of the Board for the Protection of the Aborigines:—
District Police Court, Melbourne, 8th November 1860.
Sir,
I have the honor to forward reply to your communication of the 13th ultimo, touching the diseases most common to Aborigines and mortality among them.
1. Although the Aborigines of this colony are liable to the usual diseases of Europeans, I invariably found, years back, that they seldom had the common diseases, as rheumatism, &c., to the extent Europeans have. Yet, I may state that eight-tenths of the mortality among the Aborigines of Victoria arises through intemperance, bringing on pulmonary disorders, pleurisy, pneumonia, disorders of the chest, consumption, &c., which carry them off so speedily that the ablest medical treatment, when available, seldom saves them. I may safely state, that when their respiratory organs are once affected, recovery becomes hopeless. I have witnessed this so invariably within the last ten years as to look forward for death as soon as they are afflicted in the chest.
2. The Aborigines, however, were not so affected in their respiratory organs years back as at present; they have only been carried off so precipitately since they have become slaves to intoxicating liquors. I have known blacks, years back, to labor under diseases of the lungs for nine or more months, but now seldom so many weeks, and often not so many days.
​3. There is a peculiarity even in their pulmonary disorders not usual in the European; there is not that straining, distressing cough which Europeans labor under; the phlegm comes free without much exertion and pain to the invalid, but accompanied with blood.
4. Wounds, of whatever kind, which do not affect a vital part are more readily cured than in the case of white people. I have seen most desperate wounds inflicted by their weapons (that would have kept Europeans for months invalids) healed in an incredible short time, to the astonishment of medical men. Wounds, whether by accident or otherwise, are immediately attended to by their doctors; if in the fleshy part of the body, they suck the blood from the wound, and continue sucking until blood ceases to be extracted. If little blood comes from the wound, they know all is not right, and will put the patient to pain by probing the wound with their lancet (a sharp bone), or place the body in that position so as to compress the opposite part to force blood. They know well the consequence of stagnant blood or matter, especially in the upper part of the body. When the wound is thoroughly clean, they leave the rest to nature, and place a lump of pridgerory (a kind of wax oozing from trees) on the wound; should there follow a gathering, they open the wound afresh, and see all right, and again cover it over with pridgerory.
5. Their general remedy is friction. If very severe about the thighs or legs, the doctor gets a good mound of hot ashes prepared, made solely from bark which is without grit; the patient is laid on his belly, and the doctor rubs most unmercifully the hot ashes on the part affected, as a butcher would in salting meat; if in the thighs or legs, the patient is put into the mound of heated ashes nearly up to his knees, where he sits whilst the doctor is rubbing with hot ashes the parts affected. During this process the doctor is incantating, blowing occasionally a portion of the dust into the air with a hissing noise. When sufficiently operated upon, the invalid is wrapped up in his blanket.
6. The blacks treat boils and swellings thus: when hard, they lotion the part well with decoction of wattle bark; when obstinate, they boil wild marshmallow, and poultice—if it softens and does not break, they apply their sharp bone-lancet.
7. The Aborigines are deeply afflicted with a disorder called by them bubburum; white men call it itch, but it is in no way like it: it appears as raised dark scabs, and spreads, joining each other, until they cover almost all the lower extremities; it seldom affects the head or upper parts, but I have known it almost cover the thighs and legs, so that the afflicted one could with difficulty move about. The native cure for this distemper is every night and morning to grease the parts affected with wheerup (a red-ochre) mixed with decoction of wattle bark. I knew one instance of this disease becoming most distressing to a white man, in a respectable position, who was continually cohabiting with black lubras.
8. Through their imprudence and carelessness they often get severe burns, which they cure by dabbing the parts over with melted fat, afterwards dash the parts affected with a puff made of opossum fur and the dust of wheerup.
​9. The Aborigines of Australia are very subject to dysentery, but not to the fatal extent as Europeans: their remedy for this disorder is drinking plentifully of the decoction of wattle bark and eating gum in the day, and pills night and morning made by themselves of wattle bark and gum.
10. If of long standing, the patient is compelled to lie on the back; the native doctor places his foot on the patient's ear, and presses this organ until water literally gushes from the patient's eyes; however rough the treatment, I have known this operation to give relief, and the patient to be cured.
11. The blacks study much the color of the spittle in those affected in the lungs, and know well its stages. When the patient begins to expectorate blood, much attention is paid him; should this increase, which is generally the case, the doctors hold a consultation, and when once a consultation is held the doctors will not allow the patient to take any more medicine from the whites. The invalid is laid on his back and held firm by three or four blacks, whilst the native doctor keeps continually pressing with his feet, and even jumping on his belly. I need scarcely state that this cruel practice brings on premature death.
12. Though this disease (venereal) in the first instance must have been contracted from the whites, the native doctors have prescribed a cure which, though simple, has proved efficacious: they boil the wattle bark till it becomes very strong, and use it as a lotion to the parts affected. I can state from my own personal knowledge of three Goulburn blacks, having this disease so deeply rooted in them that the then colonial surgeon, Dr. Cousin, on examining them, said life could not be saved unless they entered the hospital and had an operation performed, which they would not consent to; after eighteen months these three blacks returned to Melbourne among the tribes (two were young and the other middle-aged) perfectly cured, and the blacks assured me that they had only used the wattle bark lotion. Dr. Wilmot, our late coroner, also saw these three blacks whilst in this state, and after their soundness, and in his report upon the Aborigines stated: "However violent the disease may appear among Aborigines that it could not enter into their system, as it did in European constitutions."
13. In the Aboriginal primitive state, in times of sickness, as influenza or other diseases prevalent, they invariably carried fire about with them wherever they went on thick pieces of bark which they provided for the day's journey.
14. The Aboriginal doctor's treatment in fevers is strictly the cold water system, no matter what kind of fever it may be, accompanied with prohibition of animal food. The doctors have a quantity of water by them, fill their mouths full, and spurt it over the whole of the patient's body, back and front, and for a considerable time on the navel, then with their hands throw it over face and breast, then lay the patient on the back, breathe and blow on the navel, incantating continually while operating. If the patient be young, the doctor will carry him and plunge him into the river or creek; the adult patient will voluntarily plunge himself in three or four times a day. The blacks obstinately persist in this mode of treatment, although they find death generally the result. I was not a little surprised to find many years back that this was also the mode of treatment adopted by the natives of the South Sea Islands. I was called ​to witness their habits, when a party of them were enticed over by the late Mr. Boyd. They were located at Mr. Fennel's (Mr. Boyd's agent), on the banks of the Yarra; as soon as fever attacked them, they crept to the banks of the Yarra and plunged themselves in three or four times a day.
15. I attach to this report on the diseases of the Aborigines the opinion of twenty-nine gentlemen, situated in various parts of the colony, who, one and all, bear testimony to the awful mortality among them, the following opinions of the cause:—
| Names of the Gentlemen consulted. | Diseases. | Names of the Gentlemen consulted. | Diseases. |
| Mr. Orr | Venereal | Mr. Gilles | Intemperance |
| Mr. Lane | Scorbutic | Mr. Strutt | Intemperance and violence |
| Mr. Templeton | Intemperance and venereal | Mr. Allan | Influenza, inflammation of lungs, venereal |
| Mr. Sherard | Intemperance and exposure | Mr. Godfrey | Drunkenness, consumption, venereal |
| Mr. Shuter | Consumption and decline | Mr. Gottreux | Bronchitis, affection of the chest |
| Mr. Wilson | Intemperance and exposure | Mr. Currie | Pulmonary complaints, intemperance |
| Mr. Fisken | Bronchitis, pericarditis, psoriasis, and intemperance | Mr. Lydiard | Syphilis, intemperance, rheumatism |
| Mr. McLeod | Intemperance and exposure | Mr. Stewart | Consumption, intemperance |
| Mr. Ormond | Consumption, venereal, intemperance | Mr. Mitchell | Pulmonary consumption, venereal |
| Mr. Cooke | Syphilis | Mr. Cooke | Consumption and old age |
| Mr. Aitken | Liver complaints, intemperance, rheumatism | Mr. Huon | Influenza, intemperance |
| Mr. Skene | Syphilis, consumption, rheumatism | Mr. Wills | Intemperance, gun shot wounds, venereal |
| Mr. Beveridge | Pulmonary consumption, venereal | Mr.Featherston-haugh | Pulmonary consumption, venereal |
| Mr. Allen | Influenza | Mr. Lewes | Atrophy, influenza |
| Mr. Craig | Influenza, consumption, intemperance | | |
16. A return from a public hospital I deem would be a fair criterion for the Central Board, embracing the two points, mortality and disease.
Return of Aboriginal Natives admitted into the Melbourne Hospital from 1st January to 8th November 1860:—
| Date. | Name. | Tribe. | Disease. | Remarks. |
| April 17 | Tommy Buckley | Gippsland | Burnt back | Discharged July 20 |
| July 4 | Maria | Yarra | Pneumonia | „„ 24 |
| Sept. 14 | James Shaw | Hopkins River | Pleurisy, phthisis | Died October 20 |
| „ 18 | Sandy | Sydney | Pneumonia and phthisis | „Sept. 25 |
| Oct. 30 | Tommy Buckley | Gippsland | Pleurisy and phthisis | „Nov. 2 |
| „ 30 | Tommy Mannering | Yarra | Pneumonia and phthisis | „„7 |
Four deaths and two discharged.
I have, &c.,
(Signed) William Thomas.
Church Mission Station, Yelta, Lower Murray, 26th November 1860.
Gentlemen,
In reply to the communication of your secretary bearing date the 15th October, I have the honor to inform you that I have no statistics of the diseases prevalent amongst the Aborigines; of ten that have died here during the last four years, there have died of consumption, three; of debility and purulent scabies, one; inflammation of lungs, one; hardening of the stomach, one; venereal, &c., one; old age, two; and one from a spear wound. The three first were men, the second a boy, the others women, with the exception of the one speared, who was an elderly man.
I do not feel qualified to draw up a special report upon the subject, but, for the information of your Board, will mention the diseases which I have observed to be most prevalent amongst the Aborigines in this district.
I will first state that the treatment I adopt is the homœopathic, the medicines being administered in a solution of the tincture or the crude drug in suitable doses. In all curable cases this treatment has been invariably successful, and in the face of many disadvantages, smoking, unsuitable diet, and such like.
The medical treatment the Aborigines get generally is very little. At the various stations salts is the almost universal remedy for all their complaints, and, I doubt not, is often the source of much after-suffering to them, producing hæmorrhoids, &c.
Inflammation of the lungs is of frequent occurrence, and, when not fatal in itself, is generally the commencement of pulmonary affections, which terminate fatally after a year or two of lingering sickness.
The violent exertion they undergo at corrobborees, combined with sleeping upon wet ground, causes them to take cold, which generally produces inflammation of the lungs; this affection being more frequent in the summer, when they make their camps upon the flooded ground, and sleep upon it almost as soon as the water is off—the coolness and moisture being grateful to them at the time; this I think is one fruitful cause of their sicknesses. Influenza is prevalent amongst them at times, generally at the commencement of winter and at its close. It has proved fatal in several cases. Where it has been combined with inflammation of the lungs or enlargement of the liver, I have known a few cases which terminated fatally in each instance.
Dropsy is not unfrequent. I know of one case in which the woman, after lying for some months very ill and becoming of a great size, recovered, and is now her usual size and free from the disease. As she was not at this station, I had no opportunity of administering medicine to her. A man died of this complaint a few months since, about twenty miles above Euston.
Heart Disease.—Two men died last summer at a station on the Darling, and their deaths were attributed to this disease.
Apoplexy.—I have known one well-marked instance, and the two cases above mentioned may have been similar instances. Sudden deaths are not unfrequent.
​Paralysis is not uncommon. I know of two instances in this neighbourhood—both men, who lost the use of one side and the power of speech. The one recovered his speech after a few months; and, later, the use of his limbs. The other is still speechless, and his leg and side are quite paralysed. Another instance, which occurred about two years ago, was a young man at this station, who was suddenly paralysed in one arm, and lost both hearing and speech, but in about a month fully recovered without any medical treatment, and he has had no repetition of the attack.
Rheumatism is very common; I think very few are free from it. I have afforded them temporary relief at times by giving them an embrocation of turpentine and oil.
Diarrhœa, which sometimes results in dysentery, is at times prevalent, especially at the time when certain native berries are in season. The usual homœopathic remedies have invariably counteracted the disease.
Chronic Diarrhœa.—I have met with several instances which, from the irregularity of the patients' diet and other causes, have been very difficult to cure. These complaints, combined with the very injudicious and frequent use of salts, are the fearful cause of hæmorrhoids.
Skin Disease (a virulent pustular scabies) is very common, and often very troublesome. It generally succumbs to sulphur, or, in very severe cases, to sulphur and mercury. This complaint, when combined with a weakly state of body, sometimes proves fatal; it then forms a crust over the whole skin, and is exceedingly painful and itchy, and is accompanied with fever. I know one case, a weakly boy of about twelve years of age, in which death ensued from its effects. It arises principally from filth, and is propagated by contact.
Hardening and Enlargement of the Stomach.—This is a disease that appears to be peculiar to this people. The stomach becomes perfectly hard; at first it feels about the size of the fist, but it gradually enlarges to a great size. The limbs and body waste away to a mere skeleton; the appetite is voracious, with a great craving for meat, though the patient is able to eat but little at a time, and the food seems to afford no nourishment; great debility ensues, and the patient dies after lingering perhaps a year, or even two. I have not been able to find a cure for it, though I have often relieved it for a time by the use of medicine and nourishing diet. A medical friend has treated one case by the external application of iodine with some little benefit, but without effecting a cure. The patient, I hear, is now near death. He pronounces the complaint incurable. Men and women are alike subject to it; the cases I have met with have been persons in the prime of life. No post-mortem examination has been made in any case, so that little is known of the peculiar features of the disease, or its cause. It would be interesting and useful to anatomize a case; but I fear the prejudices of the people would be opposed to anything of the kind.
Venereal is not so frequent amongst the men as is generally supposed. I have seen very few cases, but I believe many of the young women, and even girls, are afflicted with it. I have seen on the Darling several severe cases. The young women and girls are sought after by the white men, who suffer very severely for their folly and wickedness. The women, when very bad, abstain ​from animal food, and live chiefly on vegetable diet, and generally get round after a short time, though I should not say that they were cured. They rarely apply for medicine for it, except in very severe cases.
In conclusion, I would remark that the sexual excess which the present generation of Aborigines indulge in renders them weak in constitution and deficient in stamina, and consequently more liable to disease and less able to bear it. The present generation is not equal to the former. The old people are finer, stronger, and better able to endure fatigue. As one remarked to me a short time since, "in former times, before whitefellow come, blackfellow could run like emu; but now, supposing big one run, then big one tired, and plenty heart jump about: not always like that blackfellow."
Many of their best customs and most stringent rules in regard to the young people have been weakened and broken by the introduction of the evil habits of vicious white men; and the young men, being more intelligent, pay less regard to the old men, and follow their own sexual desires to the full extent. The young women are even more sensuous and reckless of future consequences.
I am not aware that complaints common to Europeans exhibit any marked difference upon the Aboriginal constitution.
The universal belief that all sickness is caused by witchcraft, worked by one of another tribe, has often an injurious effect, and I think sometimes hastens the disease to a fatal termination.
Trusting these few remarks will be useful to your Board, in assisting them to reply to the questions of the Right Honorable the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
I have, &c.,
Thos. Hill Goodwin.
* ↑ Dampier's Voyages, 1688, vol. I., p. 464.
* ↑ Eastern Australia, vol. I., p. 197.
* ↑ The Dieyerie Tribe, 1874, p. 28.
* ↑ The Narrinyeri, 1874, pp. 32-3
* ↑ The Lower Murray Aborigines, &c., 1861.
* ↑ Eastern Australia, 1838, vol. I., pp. 216, 255, 259, 260, 304.
* ↑ The English Colony in New South Wales, 1804, p. 58.
* ↑ Australian Discovery and Colonization, 1865, pp. 142-3.
* ↑ Eastern Australia, vol. II, p. 144.
* ↑ The Narrinyeri, p. 32.
* ↑ Mr. F. Hughan, a gentleman well acquainted with the habits of the natives of the Lower Murray, has sent me the following statement:—"A great number of the natives belonging to the tribe best known to me suffered very much from internal complaints, and swellings or tumours in the side, these latter being sometimes of a considerable size. By way of relieving or curing these complaints, I have seen the blacks resort to bleeding by suction, and also to a system of steam-bathing, which was practised as follows:—A hole was dug in the ground about a foot deep, at the bottom of which was laid lighted bark, and on the fire damp leaves were placed to a level with the top of the excavation; over the hole the patient was placed in a state of nudity. The portion of the body affected being immediately over the leaves, which, acted on by the heat of the fire, emitted a steam, which was not permitted to escape, as opossum rugs were heaped on the doctored individual, who was thereby subjected to the influences of a bath, which could hardly fail in causing perspiration to burst from every pore of the patient in unmistakable quantities. Whether any radical good was effected I cannot say. One case of doctoring, on the principle of counter-irritation, I was witness to, and felt thankful that no such remedial measures were required on my own account. In the employ of a settler on the Lower Murray was a man named Abel, and at the time of which I write he was suffering from a very severe attack of sandy blight, and no means adopted by him to obtain relief were successful. Amongst the blacks on the station was one who went by the euphonious name of 'Dicky the Lawyer,' and this worthy undertook to cure Abel, providing the latter would undergo the operation proposed by the legal darkie. Abel did consent, hopeful of obtaining relief; and having an idea that Dicky might, after all, be in the possession of something which would cure the really terrible pain he (Abel) was suffering. Dicky having plucked some hair from his head, placed it in his mouth, and grinding it between his teeth, he, in course of time, reduced it to fine particles. After doing this he placed Abel in a standing position against the wall of the hut, and then with the finger and thumb of each band he opened the eyes of Abel, into which he suddenly spurted the hair from his mouth, a proceeding which, to all appearance, caused Abel the most acute agony, for he dropped to the floor, and absolutely rolled about with the pain, until it had somewhat subsided. Whether due to Dicky's peculiar practice, or to some other cause, I cannot say; at all events, from that out, Abel's eyes improved rapidly until they were perfectly restored."
* ↑ The two waddies knocked together on such occasions are named Tartengk.
* ↑ The Aborigines of Victoria, by W. E. Stanbridge.
* ↑ From Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay, by C. Hodgkinson, 1845, p. 228.