Demarara this disease attacks the Negroes principally, but
also sometimes the whites. Itis-more frequent among Dutch
than English families, the former'having been longer resident
in the country. It is however said to be unknown among
the native Americans. - Their different habits of life and the
different localities occupied by them, are perhaps the causes
of this exemption. In Ceylon a similar disease prevails
among the indigenous people and the Creoles, or descendants
of Europeans bom in the country, but does not appear
among- immigrants, whether Europeans, Africans, Hindoos,
or Malays.. The only-case recorded in an European, is
that of a man who had been resident at Point de Galley
from thirty to forty years. Europeans- likewise - escape a
similar disease* which affects the natives of Cochin in the
Peninsula.
An affection analogous to the Elephantiasis of Barbados;*
is said to take place in the same island in oxen, dogsy and
poultry; and in these animals it probably arises from the
same influences of climate/: The participation qflvfco.itflainy1
different species in this endemieal sort of 4umor may remind
uS of the steatopyga, or accumulation of fat , about rthe-^fdot
of th e os coceygis, which is- common to the Hottentots and
the South African breed of sheep. The Elephant-legpbf
Barbados is the peculiarity of certain individuals, asT is the
hump of the Hottentot; neither of these appearances is-
common to all the individuals of the race chiefly predisposed
to the affection. Nor is the steatopyga confined entirely
to the Hottentots among human races, though it is - chiefly
known in this tribe o f men. We are informed that it occurs
in a, lefe degree among the Kaffers, and various tribes of
black people on th e eastern coast.
The yaws has been already mentioned among contagious
diseases, but the predisposition to it is in the strict sense of
the i term an endemieal affection, since it prevails more
strongly, as we may judge from the greater frequency of the
disease, in some races, namely among the Negro nations, than
in others, without being entirely confined to the former.
The yaws is indigenous in the western parts of Negroland,
whence it has been conveyed to the West Indies, and to the
American continent with slaves from Africa. This disease
has been considered, by some -as peculiar in Africa to the
negro, race; but Dr. Winterbottom, whose residence at Sierra
Leone enabled him to acquire correct information, asserts
that this is b y no means the case; and his opinion has been
established by well-marked examples of the disease described
by himself and others, in persons "off European birth and
.descent. In the West Indies and in America it sometimes,
thoughi.rarely;>attacks the white inhabitants. Sprengel-dis-
tinguishes two varieties of this disease, the proper yaws and
•the pians, which he sdys was «originally endemic in one districts
of the coast of Guinea, the,kingdom of Sanguin; and is
not so readily communicated to white persons as the former
variety. By most authors they are considered., as the same
disease.:
It appears evident, that- the predisposition to. yaws, or
the .susceptibility of the disease isgreater in the Negro, than in,
the European race; and, in this respect, yavysi's very nearly pa.-
rallel to.the plica polonica which attacks iso much more frequently,
the?, race wjhich has long, inhabited the banks^of the
Vistula, than the more recentfsettlers. It would be interesting
to know whether any particular tribes .of Negroes are more
subjection yaws than others. This is the case, as we are in-
; formed by Dr. Winterbottom, with respect .to lepra, >or the
elephantiasis')©# the East, which prevails endemicully: among
the native tribes near Sierra, Leone, as it is well known to do
in many other places and among very different races of men.
Winterbottom informs us, that this disease does not appear to
be so common among the Bulloms and Timmanees, as among
the Foulahs and Mandingosi -
It has been observed, that cretinism, which is an endemi-
cal disease in the Valais, and,in some other parts of Switzer-
landiiife more X prevalent in .and among the descendants of
Savoyards and the old residents, than in the families of persons
from the higher parts of Switzerland, or of Frenchmen who
have-settledin the country.*
* In the report of M. Rambuteau, prefect of the department of the Valais, to the
M in is t e r o f the Interior. Dich de M6dicine.