138 BltlTISH . among the settlers in evident marks of premature old age; and I believe, that in no coun¬ try do the inhabitants retain their 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 a blooming maid of 7 > eighteen, or a young Wife, either without front teeth, I or with such as are black and decayed. Nervous disorders, the prime curse of civilisation and ease, are more common in the United States than in Bri¬ tish ; 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 , 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- wliose figure was extremely graceful and elegant, and whose features were beautiful. In I would have said her age was twenty- four years. I was told, and believe it, she was not eighteen.