awn" in
the Western Pacific_ (Edinburgh, 1863), p. 145; J. B. Stair,
_op. cit._ pp. 41 _sq._

And with all their natural beauty and charm the islands cannot be said
to enjoy a healthy climate. There is much bad weather, particularly
during the winter months, when long and heavy rains, attended at times
with high winds and gales, are frequent. The air is more moist than in
Tahiti, and the vegetation in consequence is more rank and luxuriant.
Decaying rapidly under the ardent rays of a tropical sun, it exhales a
poisonous miasma. But the heat, oppressive and exhausting at times, is
nevertheless tempered by the sea and land breezes, which blow daily,
alternating with intervals of calm between them. Besides these daily
breezes the trade wind blows regularly from the east during the fine
season, when the sky is constantly blue and cloudless. Yet with all
these alleviations the climate is enervating, and a long residence in it
is debilitating to the European frame.[10] Nor are the natives exempt
from the noxious effects of an atmosphere saturated with moisture and
impregnated with the fumes of vegetable decay. The open nature of their
dwellings, which were without walls, exposed them to the heavy night
dews and rendered them susceptible to diseases of the chest and lungs,
from which they suffered greatly; consumption in its many forms, coughs,
colds, inflammation of the chest and lungs, fevers, rheumatism,
pleurisy, diarrh[oe]a, lumbago, diseases of the spine, scrofula, and
many other ailments are enumerated among the disorders which afflicted
them. But the prevailing disease is elephantiasis, a dreadful malady
which attacks Europeans and natives alike. There are many cases of
epilepsy, and though idiots are rare, lunatics are less infrequent.
Hunchbacks are very common in both sexes, and virulent ophthalmia is
prevalent; many persons lose the sight of one eye, and some are totally
blinded; not less than a fifth part of the population is estimated to
suffer from this malady.[11] Curiously enough, hunchbacks, who are said
to be very numerous on account of scrofula, used to be looked on as
special favourites of the spirits, and many of them, on growing to
manhood, were accordingly admitted to the priesthood.[12]

[10] Ch. Wilkes, _Narrative of the United States
Exploring Expedition_, ii. 118; Violette, "Notes d'un
Missionnaire sur l'archipel de Samoa," _Les Missions
Catholiques_, iii. (1870) p. 72 (who