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In respect to inflammations of the eyes, which sometimes rise to a very great height, attended frequently with a considerable purulent discharge; they frequently have recourse to scarification by the application of a particular kind of grass, the minute spicula with which it is replete dividing the inflamed vessels as it is moved upon the tunica adnata. To assist in reducing ophthalmic inflammations, they also drop into the eye an acid vegetable juice, and sometimes another of a bitter quality; the first is called vi, the latter bawlo. The species of ophthalmia to which they are subject, though sometimes lingering, is stated scarcely ever to have produced serious consequences, and is not considered contagious. Mr. Mariner neither saw nor heard but of one man who had lost his sight by disease.

In cases of gunshot wounds, their main object is to lay the wound open, if it can be done with safety in respect to the larger blood-vessels and tendons, not only for the extraction of the ball, if it should still remain, but for the purpose of converting a fistulous into an open wound, that it may thereby heal sooner and better if they have to cut down near larger vessels, they use bamboo in preference to the shell; the samne near tendons, that there may

be less chance of injuring them. They always make incisions nearly in the course of the muscles, or, at least, parallel with the limb.

The amputation of a limb is an operation very seldom performed; nevertheless it has been done in at least twelve individuals. Mr. Mariner seeing one day a man without an arm, curiosity led him to enquire how it happened, and found that he had been one of the twelve principal cooks of Toogoo Ahoo, the tyrant of Tonga, and had submitted to the amputation of his left arm, under the circumstances related Vol. I. p. 76. The mode in which this operation was performed was similar to that of tootoonima, described Vol. II. p. 222, only that a large heavy axe was used for the purpose. The bleeding was not so profuse as might be imagined, owing, no doubt, to the bluntness of the instrument and violence of the blow. This stump appeared to Mr. Mariner to be a very good one; the arm was taken off about two inches above the elbow. Ten were stated to have done very well; of the remaining two, one died of excessive haemorrhage, and the other of mortification. There was also a man living at the island of Vavaoo who had lost a leg in consequence of the bite of a shark, which is not a very uncommon accident; but there

was something unusual in this man's particular case his leg was not bitten off, but the flesh was almost completely torn away from about five inches below the knee down to the foot, leaving the tibia and fibula greatly exposed, and the foot much mangled: he was one of those who chose to perform his own operations; with persevering industry, therefore, he sawed nearly through the two bones with a shell, renewing his tedious and painful task every day till he had nearly accomplished it, and then completed the separation by a sudden blow with a stone! The stump never healed. Mr. Mariner had this account from the man himself and many others.

Tefe, or the operation of circumcision, is thus performed: a narrow slip of wood, of a convenient size, being wrapped round with gnatoo, is introduced under the præputium, along the back of which a longitudinal incision is then made to the extent of about half an inch, either with bamboo or shell (the latter is preferred); this incision is carried through the outer fold, and the beginning of the inner fold, the remainder of the latter being afterwards torn open with the fingers: the end of the penis is then wrapped up in the leaf of a tree called gnatai, and is secured with a band

age: the boy is not allowed to bathe for three days: the leaf is renewed once or twice a day. At the Fiji islands this operation is performed by amputating a portion of the præputium, according to the Jewish rite.

The operation of the ta tattow, or puncturing the skin, and marking it with certain configurations, though it is not properly surgical, yet we mention it here, as it is very apt to produce enlargements of the inguinal and axillary glands. The instrument used for the purpose of this operation somewhat resembles a small tooth comb: they have several kinds, of different degrees of breadth, from six up to fifty or sixty teeth: they are made of the bone of the wing of the wild duck. Being dipped in a mixture of soot and water, the outline of the tatto'w is first marked off before the operator begins to puncture, which he afterwards does by striking in the points of the instrument with a small stick made of a green branch of the cocoa-nut tree: when the skin begins to bleed, which it quickly does, the operator occasionally washes off the blood with cold water, and repeatedly goes over the same places: as this is a very painful process, but a small portion of it is done at once, giving the patient (who may justly be so called) intervals of three or four

days rest, so that it is frequently two months before it is completely finished. The parts

tattowed are from within two inches of the knees up to about three inches above the umbilicus there are certain patterns or forms of the tattow, known by distinct names, and the individual may choose which he likes. On their brown skins the tattow has a black appearance, on the skin of an European a fine blue appearance. This operation causes that portion of the skin on which it is performed to remain permanently thicker. During the time that it is performed, but sometimes not for two or three months afterwards, swellings of the inguinal glands take place, and which almost always suppurate sometimes they are opened with a shell before they point, which is considered the best treatment; at other times they are allowed to take their course. We need not wonder at the absorbents becoming so much affected when we consider the extent of surface which is subjected to this painful operation; even the glans penis and the verge of the anus do not escape. It is considered very unmanly not to be tattowed, so that there is nobody but what submits to it as soon as he is grown up. The women are not subjected to it, though a few of them choose to have some marks of it

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