310 PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

“ The fevers and other diseaSes of the United States are unknown here , no person ever saw an inter- mittent fever produced on the island, n01 will that complaint, when brought here, ever stand above a few days against the influence of the climate. I have seen thirty Hessian soldiers, who brought this disease from the southward, and who were so much reduced thereby as to be carried on shore in blankets, all recove1 in a ve1y s1101t time , few of them had any return (51 fit of the complaint afte1 the fi1 st forty- eight hours from their landing on the island.”

Pulmonary consumption, which is so common and so ve1y destructive in the n01the1'n and central states of America, 1s not often met with here. P1 obablytvefin cases of this complaint have not occurred since the settlement of the colony. Colds and rheumatisms are 7 the most common complaints: the first generally affect ‘ the head more than the b1east, and the last seldom prove mortal. A Very large proportion of the people live to old age, and then die of no acute disease, but by the gradual decay of nature.

“ Deaths between twenty and fifty years of age are but few, when compared with those of most other countries; and I t1ust I do not exaggerate the fact, when I state, that n2Loneperson in fifty (all acci- dents included) dies in a year. It follows, from what has been said, that mankind must increase very fast in such a climate; accordingly, large families are almost universal. Industry always secures a comfort-

able subsistence, which encourages early marriages: