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.
