Europe may be collected, from the accounts of Lapland by
Shefferand by Linnaeus, and of Asia by Pallas and Gmelin.
From a review of the whole subject considered in this section
it apears, that the great catalogue of diseases which afflict
mankind; are common to the whole human family. They
differ in different climates ; and local circumstances often engender
a predisposition to particular disorders in races which
have been long subjected to their influence. These ^re all
«comparatively slight modifications. The pathological history
of different races appears to illustrate and confirm the inference,
already deduced from researches into their physiology,
that a common nature belongs to all mankind.
NOTE ON THE CONTENTS OF CHAPTER THE
. FIRST.
In page;T3$«I havé^fatèd'the geneÈal Afèiï&Si of inquiries
obtained1 fréfm »medical practitioners™ in the*.West ^Indies in
referencjjfeto the^physiology- 'o f the Negrbll'.': The following
queries « were- selit'; some time since to Dr. Huggins,
a1; very intelligent'physician, who has had great ^opportunities
of observatirbm^during a-' I'on'g- .residence and', very. extensive
practice in the ièMndf of St. Vincënt, and by-him the replies
#fer.m given whi ch are^appended to th e^eiaeS :1 :They cannot
fUiftfto be interesting’ tomany' ofi my reader^: '>?,
• Question L Is longevity frequent amongtlire Negroes of St.
Vincent’#?
Answer. I have known a great many very old negroes
who4se/ix é it ages cpuld noftheéascertained.. At the^timë of
the hurriöarïé in sfS31, I had a?record ofidhé,fin o rta lity |# th e '
whole of my practice from the year 1$’13, and in everyryear
there werfe1 deaths of Negroës computed to&he sixty; seventy,
or eighty 'years'bf age, and upwards. My father w'ill be eighty-
four years old in May next, and the fiegro woman who carried
him about as a child is still living, and at the age of niUety-six
enj oying gbod health, upright in figure, and capable of walking
several miles.1 On a property belonging to a nephew ofnline;
there is an-old woman who has five great-grand sons and one
great. grand-daughter,' which great-grand daughter has six
children, and is daily expecting a seventh. The age of this
great-great-grandmother is not known, but h e r, daughter,
the great-grandmother, has been doing nothing for very many
years, I believe for the last twenty .-.On an estate*iii the Caraib
country, under nlfjown medical charge,-out,of two hundred
and forty apprentices, there are one hundred and five Africans,
whose average age is computed at fifty-eight, and on
another property not far distant, out of about the same num-
M