in Tahiti in 1777 he suffered evidently from a severe attack of sciatica, the pain extending from the hip to the toes. King Otoo's mother, his three sisters and eight more women came on his ship one evening for the purpose of giving him treatment and remained all night to fulfill their well-meant mission. Here is the account of the treatment to which he was subjected by the

women:

I accepted the kindly offer, had a bed spread for them upon the cabin floor, and submitted myself to their directions. I was desired to lay myself down amongst them. Then, as many of them as could get around me, began to squeeze me with both hands, from head to foot, but more particularly on the parts where the pain was lodged, till they made my bones crack, and my flesh became a perfect mummy. In short, after undergoing this discipline about a quarter of an hour, I was glad to get away from them. However, the operation gave me immediate relief, which encouraged me to submit to another rubbing down before I went to bed; and it was so efficient that I found myself pretty easy all the night after. My female physicians repeated their prescription the next morning, before they went ashore, and again in the evening, when they returned on board; after which, I found the pains entirely removed, and the cure being perfected, they took leave of me the following morning. This they call romee, an operation which, in my opinion, far exceeds the flesh-brush, or anything of the kind that we make use of externally. It is universally practised amongst the islanders, being sometimes performed by men, but more generally by

women.

PHYSICIANS IN TAHITI

Tahiti is not an Eldorado for doctors. The entire island has only eleven thousand inhabitants and the great majority of them are too poor to pay for medical services. The only place in Tahiti where a doctor can be found is in Papeete. At the time I visited the island there was only one physician in private practice in the capital city, Dr. Chassaniol, a retired naval surgeon, the only private practitioner in the whole group of islands. The bulk of medical practice is in the hands of the government physician, always a military man who has at the same time charge of the Military Hospital and takes care of the sick poor, and supervises all matters pertaining to sanitation. The only other physicians in the island are the naval surgeons on board a small man-of-war almost constantly anchored in the harbor of Papeete. The government physician is privileged to practice outside of the hospital, and from this source he receives the bulk of his income. As the resident physician and the government physician are the only qualified physicians in the whole archipelago, it requires no stretch of the imagination to realize that until the present time the French government has not made adequate provisions for their subjects who require the services of a physician.