ber of people there are one hundred and three Africans, whose
average age is estimated at fifty-six. This fact will at once
explain the principal cause of the decrease in this and other
islands so much dwelt upou by the abolitionists. I t is obvious,
that there is a great disproportion of aged people, and
that the percentage of mortality must be considérable during
the next ten or fifteen years. Bo it is with the whole island,
more or less. At the time of the registration, 1817, there
were upon one estate in my own practice one hundred and
eightyfeight Africans : of these one hundred and ' ten or one
hundred and twenty have died, principally within the last ton
years ; yet the actual strength of the gang is now greater
than it ever was, notwithstanding th e diminution in the
number.
Qu. 2. At what age do the Negro women begin and cease
to,be subject to the catamenia ?
Answer. There is some difficulty in answering this question,
arising from the Negro women never knowing their own
ages, or being able to answer questions regarding time but
as far as my opinion or information goes, I should ïsay, that
there was no difference in these respects between black
and white women. The black girls in this, island often do
not commence menstruating until they are -teventeen : and
upwards, but this is late, and I have imagined that it may be
attributed to their early habits of licentiousness^:' »
Qu. 3. Is there any difference in these respects, or in any
of the circumstances connected with the catamenia, between
negresses and white women?.
Answer. There is no difference that I am aware of.
Qu. 4. Is there any difference in the period of utero-gesta-
tion or any of the circumstances connected with child-birth,
between negresses and white women ?
Answer. None that I am aware of.
Qu. 5, What are the prevailing diseases among Negroes ?
Answer. Worms, dysenteries, colds and coughs and other
pulmonic complaints, rheumatism, inflammatory fevers,
dropsies, also herpetic and itchy eruptions, ulcers, hernias
inguinal and umbilical, menstrual obstructions. Two-thirds of
the patieats uome>into ;the hospitals with functional derangement
of the stomach - and chylopoietic viscera,/« n d are relieved
by an emetic, and one or two purges of calomel. Pure
idiopathic fever, or <the tcoffiinbn bilious ©r remittènit:fev©f
footing 4be white inhabitants, may be-said itohe almost uni-
known among the negroes. Indeed there iare medical men, of:
great experience too, who liave never witnessed :ai<mse apd are
therefore sceptical as to those of which they b e a r accounts—
hut I have myself witnessed many cases,, and several of them
fatal. But then the diseases of the district in which I have
practised/the Caraib country, have always differed from those
of - other parts of the island, in being of, a more inflammatory,
nature, and requiring a freer use,of the lancet. This may be
accounted l|ffir by its spjêculiar situation. The pecdl-tap, and
very-extraordinary disease^ termed “ mal d’eStpmac,’ ’ answering
tó; the “ marasmus anhaemia” of Dr. Good, /is , stiff frequent,
but by-no means so, common as formerly^ Phthisis
pul-monalis oecurs much more frequently than has been supposed.
I have examined negro lungs as thickly studded
with ;tubercles, as, I have, .seen in Europe. Insanity^, by no
means uncommon among, the Neggoje^tnotwithstanding the
assertion of Sir Andrew Halliday to the contrary. I jpkyehad
many patients. -
Qu. 6: Ts yaws prevalent and do , Europeans eypr contract
i t i lS
Answer. The yaws has been very prevalent here, but is jj
now ■ becoming more rare. Europeans do occasionally contract
it. I have attended a white family labouring under it.
Qu. 7._ Is elephantiasis prevalent, and are Europeans or
white men, in any degree, subject to it ?
Answer. Elephantiasis (meaning the elephantiasis or lepra
Arabum) is very prevalent among the Negroes; and Europeans
do occasionally become affected with it^ b u t very rarely.
I have had no white patient myself, and h aw o n ly heard of
three or four. If by elephantiasis be meant the elephant or,
Barbados-leg, I would say that it is confined to the. Negroes,
having never seen or heard|-|df! ca^e in a white
. person.