All the remedies practised among them may very safely be ranked under these three heads, viz. invocation, sacrifice, and external operations as to internal remedies, they sometimes, but very seldom, use infusions of a few plants, which produce, however, no sensible effect, either upon the system or upon the disease, and we may readily conceive in how little esteem such remedies are held when the king's daughter, whose life so great pains were taken to preserve, took none of them, nor did any one think of proposing them. The idea of giving these infusions was first taken from the natives of the Fiji islands, who have the repute of being skilful in the management of internal remedies and though almost all the surgical operations known and practised at the Tonga islands have avowedly been borrowed from the same source, and followed up with a considerable degree of skill and success, yet the Tonga people have generally failed in the former, and for the cure of constitutional ailments, depend upon the mercy of the gods, without any interference on their own parts, except in the way of invocation and sacrifice. In such a state of things, it would be natural to suppose that they frequently make use of charms, amulets, &c. to assist in the cure; but

this, however, is never done, for they have not the most distant idea of this sort of superstition, which prevails so much over almost all the world, even in the most civilized countries. The natives of the Sandwich islands, however, appear to have some knowledge of medicine, but whether from original discoveries of their own, or from the information of Europeans, Mr. Mariner could not obtain any information from those natives who were with him at Vavaoo. One of these Sandwich islanders (a petty chief), professed some knowledge of the healing art, and it so happened that Mr. Mariner was once the subject of his skill. Feeling himself much indisposed by a disordered state of the stomach and bowels, attended with head-ach and drowsiness, this Sandwich islander proposed to give him some internal remedies, whilst a native of Tonga, on the other hand, very much wanted him to lose some blood (by scarification with shells on the arms, legs), &c. The remedies proposed by the former were an emetic and a cathartic: the cathartic consisted chiefly of the sweet potatoe grated, and the juice of the sugar-cane; this, however, was added the juice of some other vegetable substance, with which Mr. Mariner was not acquainted.

The emetic

consisted of two infusions, one of certain leaves, and the other of a particular root, both unknown to him: the Sandwich islander informed him that the root was necessary to counteract the effect of the leaves, which was very powerful, and might, in a large dose, and without such addition, kill him. Upon this discouraging information, the native of Tonga, with his scarifying shells, redoubled his persuasions, ridiculed the remedies of the other, and, on understanding what effect they would have, laughed most heartily at the idea of curing a sick man by means which would make a healthy man sick. The remedies of the surgeon, however, were not more agreeable than those of the physician, and the patient was at a loss to know to whose care he should entrust his health; when the latter signified his intention of taking some of his own physic, which was the best proof he could possibly give of his confidence in it: two equal doses were accordingly prepared; the patient took one, and the doctor the other. The cathartic was first given, and the emetic about an hour afterwards the latter operated in about another hour, and the former, in conjunction with it, in about two hours and a half. They both evinced abundant evidence of their re

spective properties, and the following morning Mr. Mariner found himself perfectly well : which happy result the man who wanted to bleed him could by no means attribute to the remedies he had taken! The Sandwich islander, notwithstanding he was much laughed at, particularly about his cathartics, obtained at length a considerable share of credit for his skill. Finow took his remedies twice with very good effect, which encouraged some others to try; but as these circumstances took place only a short time before Mr. Mariner left, and consequently only a few trials had been made, we ought not to speak of them as constituting the medical knowledge of the Tonga people; but as this Sandwich island chief was a man of considerable judgment, and, as Mr. Mariner has every reason to think, a good observer, we indulge the hope that no ill success, at an early period, has destroyed confidence in the adoption of two such useful remedies.

The ceremonies of invocation in behalf of sick people have already been described in the account of the sickness of the late king's daughter: the sacrifices adopted on similar occasions are tootooni'ma and nawgia; cutting off fingers and strangling children: these also have both

been described; the latter is only done for very great chiefs. We shall now proceed to speak of their operative surgery, and constitutional diseases, as far as Mr. Mariner's observation can lead him to speak with accuracy.

No native of Tonga undertakes to practise surgery, unless he has been at the Fiji islands, where constant wars afford great opportunities of becoming skilful; and no native of Tonga would employ a surgeon who had not been thus schooled: nor would any one, as Mr. Mariner believes, undertake an important surgical operation, unless he feels himself confident in what he is about to perform; and it must be said of them, that they are not rash in their opinions. When a surgeon performs an operation, he never fails to obtain a present from the patient or his friends.

The three most important operations are cawso, or paracentesis thoracis; tocolosi, or an operation for the cure of tetanus, which consists in making a seton in the urethra; and beca, or castration.

Cawso is an operation which is performed to allow of the escape of extravasated blood, which has lodged in the cavity of the thorax, in consequence of wounds, or for the extraction of a broken arrow. There are no other