nails of
their feet also, to which, being always uncovered, they pay as much
attention as to their hands. The hands of the natives, and even of the
halfbreed, are always cold to the touch; which I cannot account for
otherwise than by a supposition that, from the less degree of elasticity
in the solids occasioned by the heat of the climate, the internal action
of the body by which the fluids are put in motion is less vigorous, the
circulation is proportionably languid, and of course the diminished
effect is most perceptible in the extremities, and a coldness there is
the natural consequence.

HILL PEOPLE SUBJECT TO WENS.

The natives of the hills through the whole extent of the island are
subject to those monstrous wens from the throat which have been observed
of the Vallaisans and the inhabitants of other mountainous districts in
Europe. It has been usual to attribute this affection to the badness,
thawed state, mineral quality, or other peculiarity of the waters; many
skilful men having applied themselves to the investigation of the
subject. My experience enables me to pronounce without hesitation that
the disorder, for such it is though it appears here to mark a distinct
race of people (orang-gunong), is immediately connected with the
hilliness of the country, and of course, if the circumstances of the
water they use contribute thereto, it must be only so far as the nature
of the water is affected by the inequality or height of the land. But in
Sumatra neither snow nor other congelation is ever produced, which
militates against the most plausible conjecture that has been adopted
concerning the Alpine goitres. From every research that I have been
enabled to make I think I have reason to conclude that the complaint is
owing, among the Sumatrans, to the fogginess of the air in the valleys
between the high mountains, where, and not on the summits, the natives of
these parts reside. I before remarked that, between the ranges of hills,
the kabut or dense mist was visible for several hours every morning;
rising in a thick, opaque, and well-defined body with the sun, and seldom
quite dispersed till afternoon. This phenomenon, as well as that of the
wens, being peculiar to the regions of the hills, affords a presumption
that they may be connected; exclusive of the natural probability that a
cold vapour, gross to a uncommon degree, and continually enveloping the
habitations, should affect with tumors the throats of the inhabit