Before they became tainted with diseases contracted from Europeans, the aborigines were a healthy and hardy race. Their outdoor life and the necessary struggle for existence kept them toned up physically. No epidemics are known to have occurred. Their maladies were such as would arise from accident, exposure, strain and errors of diet. Indigestion, rheumatism and toothache were common troubles. Leprosy was unknown, but I knew the case of a man whose nose was in a state of chronic gangrene. Heart disease, probably the result of strain, judging from cases I witnessed, would not be rare. The partial adoption of European habits both aggravated the maladies they were naturally liable to and induced others of a more serious nature, such as syphilis and phthisis. Since contact with white people, the great majority of deaths has been the result of phthisis, and this scourge has been specially fatal to the young.

In their pristine condition the natives seemed to have lived to an old age. I knew a few people of seventy years and upwards. One woman, who used to be carried about from camp to camp, had become wizened like a mummy.

Their medical skill was very limited, for the most part mere illusion, and of surgical skill they had virtually none. To allay pain they would apply a tight bandage, and sores they would cover over with clay or ashes.