"
(19/3. Captain Beechey chapter 4 volume 1, states that the
inhabitants of Pitcairn Island are firmly convinced that after the
arrival of every ship they suffer cutaneous and other disorders.
Captain Beechey attributes this to the change of diet during the
time of the visit. Dr. Macculloch "Western Isles" volume 2 page 32,
says "It is asserted that on the arrival of a stranger (at St.
Kilda) all the inhabitants, in the common phraseology, catch a
cold." Dr. Macculloch considers the whole case, although often
previously affirmed, as ludicrous. He adds, however, that "the
question was put by us to the inhabitants who unanimously agreed in
the story." In Vancouver's "Voyage" there is a somewhat similar
statement with respect to Otaheite. Dr. Dieffenbach, in a note to
his translation of this Journal, states that the same fact is
universally believed by the inhabitants of the Chatham Islands and
in parts of New Zealand. It is impossible that such a belief should
have become universal in the northern hemisphere, at the Antipodes,
and in the Pacific, without some good foundation. Humboldt
"Political Essay on Kingdom of New Spain" volume 4, says that the
great epidemics at Panama and Callao are "marked" by the arrival of
ships from Chile, because the people from that temperate region
first experience the fatal effects of the torrid zones.
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