We are informed by various writers: that the females among
the African nations have the catamenia very early.« ■
Mr. Burchell says, the girls "among the Bushmen are
betrothed at seven years iof age, which, however, implies
nothing more; but he adds, that they are sometimes mothers
at twelve, or even at ten years. o.f age.-
In the hot and low country of the Eboes, the females,
according to Mr. Oldfield, have the catamenia at eight or nine
years of age. Hewwas:informed that the periods frequently
return every third week, having a duration1 of about-three
days.
In the West Indies, wé have an opportunity of comparing
the white and black people under the same.^climate, though
not precisely under th é ''same circumstances,. : I have frequently
made inquiry on the same subject of medical- practitioners
who .have lived in the West Indies, and the| uniform
result .of this inquiry has been, that there is po difference in
respect to the age of puberty, th e period of fecundity, or any
of the circumstances connected with the catamenia .between
white women and negresseSi l;
Few persons have possessed : greater opportunities, ofvac-
quiring information on the physical condition o f the Africans
than Dr. Winterbottom. This writer declares that there is
little difference in the age of puberty between the African
and the European. With regard .to the eatamenia hje,©b-
serves, “ £ am unable to speak with precision, respecting this
excretion in the natives of Africa, but among the settlers at
Free Town, in Sierra Leone, my opportunities, ©f observation
were very extensive. It m ay be proper to remark that these
people, who .are generally called Noya-Scotians, because
brought from that country to . Sierra Leone, are blacks who
were either carried ..to America when very young, or were
born there of parents who came from Africa. Of course they
are sufficiently acquainted with the customs of white people,
and they live nearly in the same way as the lower classes of
people in Europe. . Among the Nova Scotian women, the
catamenia have precisely the same appearance as among
Europeans, who are usually* exposed to the open air; and
the same varieties occur with regard to quantity, periods, of
recurrence, &c. nor have they experienced any material alteration
by change of climate^/m
If any race of men deviates more than others from the
common. standard in .'these particulars,. I apprehend it to be
the aborigines of America.!: ’ Among them, although the
bodily frame is endowed with great muscular strength and
fortitude, the powers ofdifd in the hatural and vital functions,
as f hey are termed by physiological writers, are at- a lo w .ebh.
Dr. Bush says, that outomfl eight Indians whose pulses he
examined at the wrist,-, he did not 'meet with one in whom
the arteries beat more than si^tyrfpur strokes in -a minute.
It is'com^rofily supposed, that the fecundity of the American
women is? less. than that of the’ femalesrin other race's,* and
that the sexual affections among ihM'd people are derss'powerful.
. Some Writers' ha Vie/in deed; plainly intimated «a tS^spicion
o f vanf important .and -specific * difference between them/and
othed vaoes ’of men in these particulars. • In »orders to>iclear*up
all doubts on this', head, I shall cite‘.the’testimonies of- some
o f tb&kest. informddiö'bsèiivci«. > 1
Dr. Rush ass.ure»,usy th a t the/ women of the North ;Ameri-
ban4rib'CS^Seldom ’begin toj be subject., to the catamenia, till
they - are> about »oightèen :<or;?twentyiyears! | of ?age,f iand that
the#e phsenomêna generally1 cease before» they-are forty years
old. They »have th e 1 catamenia in smallqu antities;! but at
regular intervals. They seldom marry.;?till 'about twenty:
their marriages are rarely unfruitful : miscarriages')-seldom
happen among them. Their labours are shorty and accomr
-panièd with litttepain $ and after a few days >r they return to
their usual employments.
These observations refer chiefly to the '-tribes in the nor»-
them and middle parts of the United Statésrtr In the account
which was published by Mr. Jaöiës, .of am expedition to-the
Rocky Mountains, we have information on many points con-?
nected with the physical and moral history of the nations in
* Don Felix de Azara saÿs,lfitdescribing ahé Indians of Paraguay : a J ’ad-
mire la hauteur de leur taille, la grandeur et l’élégance de leurs proportion*; qui
n’ont point d’égalés dans le monde; et en ffiètne' temsyje1 nédôütopas de leur peii
de fécondité.” ~
-j- Dr. Rush on the Diseases and Medicine of the American Indian*.