138 BRITISH AMERICA.

among the settlers in British America evident marks of premature old age; and I believe, that in no coun- try do the inhabitants retaintheir faculties, or health and strength, longer; yet there is no doubt that young people arrive at maturity earlier than in England, and, generally speaking, lose the colour and bloom of youth sooner. I think, too, although it cannot be by any means considered a prevailing disease, that decayed teeth are more common than in Britain. Colds may certainly be considered the prevailing cause of disease, particularly of pulmonary consump- tion, which proves as frequently fatal to young mar— ried women and girls, at the age of youth and beauty, as in England. Bilious complaints are seldom known.

It is truly distressing to see akblooming maid of 1"": eighteen, or a young Wife, either without front teeth, 1 or with such as are black and decayed. Nervous '- ’ disorders, the prime curse of civilisation and ease, are more commonin the United States than in Bri- tish America; but not so general in either as in England.

' I perfectly concur with other travellers, who have observed that the hosts of gloomy, low-educated preachers who wander throughout America, are pro- lific causes of nervous affections. These men, whom we will, in charity, call fanatics, shake the nerves of

young innocent women, by roaring out their perpe-

whose figure was extremely graceful and elegant, and whose features were beautiful. In England I would have said her age was twenty- four years. I was told, and believe it, she was not eighteen.