evidence extends, favourable to the doctrine that all human
tribes belong to one and the same-species. |
Paragraph 2.—Endemic diseases.
-The S e ts relating to endemical ^diseases and predispositions
to disease, deserve our closest attention, land lead apparently
to some Gurious results. Before we can collect these results,
i t will beneeessaryto attend to particulars.
Some of these diseases are properly termed endemical,
though they are not the immediate result of local influences ;
the constitutional predisposition to them is inherent in particular
races. It- seems to originate ,in local influences, but
these influences must be exerted during a long course of years,
and perhaps during several generations, in order to bring forth
the moihid tendency. This observation must be dlustrated
by sonmexampleSi
The, plica polonica is a disease exhibiting remarkable phenomena,
on which some recent information h a s beenv eom-4
munieated in Ilufcland and Osann’s Journal, in 1834.*
“ This complaint,” says H'ufeland, " is peculiar to districts
on and in the neighbourhood of the.Vistula, whfence itS^de-’
nomination. The Germans term it Weiehselzepfj
Vistulana. From this circumstance it has been supposed to.
be a disorder arising from merely local causes, or depending immediately
on climate. But if such was the fact, the inhabitants
without exception would be subject to the disease. We:
find, on the contrary^ that the Germans who inhabit the same
districts and are exposed to the same local influences, if they
have not an entire immunity from the Plica, are at least affected
by it much more rarely, and, as it would seem, only as
the result of contagion or communication with infected persons.
We even find villages dose by each other, one of German and
the other of Polish population, the disease being prevalent in
the latter and not existing in the former. It has formerly
been supposed to originate from the dress of the people, from
their wearing skin and far, and the practice of shaving their
* Merkwiirdige Falle von Plica Polonica zur Aufhellung ihrer verborgenen
Formen gesammelt, von Dr. Kiitzin zu Bromberg.
heads; but the Russians wear the same sort of dress,and the
Turks, likewise shave_»their heads, yet neither have the plica.
Ju st as ■; little can «we account for this fact by reference to the
uncleanly habits of the Polish boors, since the Russian peasantry
are not -much behind them in this respect, and yet
have no Weidhs'dfropf. All these considerations render it to
very probable that the plica, with respect to its origination,
belongs to* the class of national and not local diseases. I t is
peculiar to a particular raeeof men, namely to, the Sarmatic, and
not generally to the whole Slavonic family, which includes the
Sarmatian,- the . Russian, Bohemian and the proper. 'Slavonian
branches^ for these last-mentioned* races do not partake o f
the ia|fectioni” #' ‘
The Boles nor the Sarmatic race, as Hufeland terms them,
belong origiiially to the same stock as the Russian'énd Bohemian.
We have therefore in this^ instance* a proof that a
tribe of people, by long residence in-a given district; are capa-^
bjteN>f acquiring a peculiar hereditary and national variety o f
constitution, predisposing them to1 a particular disease from
which other tribes of the same original stock are altogether
orovery heäriynfeee.
: Qther equally striking instances may be; found, in which
pjredispositiQH'. to diseases is only acquired by individuals after
long residence;, or even by races after some generations« passed
in the climate productiv e of such diseases. This appears to be
the case with the species of elephantiasis, or elephant-leg of
Barbados, and other intertropical countries. The endemical
disease of Barbados must be distinguished from the leprosy
so well known in the lazar-houses of Madeira and other
places, which is termed by some writers elephantiasis, and
by others, lepra Arabum. The former disease attaeks, as
might be supposed, the black indigenous races more readily
than Europeans, or the descendants of Europeans. The
elephant-leg of Barbados has long been known as an endemic
among the black population, to which it was confined
until 1704. A t that • period it was first known in a white
man; but before 1760, when he died, it had become a
common disease among the white people of the island. In
* Vorwort üben Rac; en-Krankheiten, von C. W. Hufeland.