[178] For instance, by causing the natives to wear worse clothes, and to live all the year round in their damp, insanitary houses, where the germs of disease find the best possible soil to flourish in, by introducing European articles of diet, and so forth.
[179] It is strange that the Greenlanders have in great measure escaped syphilis, which is usually one of the first gifts we confer upon those primitive people whom we select as subjects for our experiments in civilisation. It is found only in one place, Arsuk in South Greenland, where they try to isolate it. It is only of recent years that it has been introduced, but from what I hear it appears to have spread, and it seems probable that it will continue to do so, and in course of time affect the whole population.
[180] Just as I am sending this to press there appears Gejerstam’s Kulturkampen i Herjedalen, in which the author argues, as I do, that our school teaching has been the ruin of the Lapps, by weakening their interest in the business of their lives.
[181] Crowns, the krone being equal to 1s. 1½d.—Trans.
Transcriber’s Notes:
Apparent printer’s errors have been corrected. Hyphenation has been standardised except where the meaning would be affected e.g. ‘re-cover’. All other inconsistencies are as in the original. Apparent typographical errors have been corrected. s. and d. (currency) all italicised for consistency. Original accentuation has been retained. Original spelling has been retained with some exceptions e.g. secresy to secrecy, song-writting to song-writers, Rosetti to Rossetti, ubringing to upbringing, translater to translator.