It is perfectly true, as respects the mixed progeny of the blacks
and whites; for it is admitted everywhere, at the South, that the
susceptibility of this class is in direct ratio to the infusion of white
blood; but the American Indians of the table-lands, as the Mexicans,
and the mixed bloods of Spaniards and Mexicans, are infinitely
inore liable to yellow fever, than mulattoes of any grade. ' This law
of color, would seem to apply to African and Asiatic races, but not
-to the aboriginal races of America.
The following extract, from a document-of the highest authority
will, I am sure, be read with peculiar interest, in this connection.25
Of all protections, that of complexion was oar amount WUar, +r r • ,
If H I table E B B M l and ^ e d o r e s , | of H E M M never seen.
to the table of tlnrteen months’ admissions to the hospital, already riven be added a
classified census of the population of the colony, information is given w ^ h us to
arrive at something like precise knowledge on this subject. (See table, infra page 394 )
M M not for the whole thirteen months. During the vear 1 «^9 7«7n o *i. a w « w « w M i i M H y
a total of 8309, estimated all as white, who, for a longer or shorter period, were exposed to
the endemic influence. This number should be added to th«t „f T -T , -
This0Sced’ anta tthe ?er.centage °f | H be as follows: whites, H Varls^OOm
Tins computation is irrespective of the effects of residence on the constitution But th«
numbers afforded by the census returns are sufficiently great and detailed to a ,th -
purer and more ultimate analysis of the effects of complexion, or, in other words culanelu, ' zr«°Af 7°yeUow feyer among 1116 IB 1 Hi BI (bla0k) “ S » 0 6 ’ none contracted yellow fever.
fever- BBl i l l §1mUlatt0>’ I or lever, of 10,978 Madras and Calcutta coohes (black, but fine1-ha iPreerd ), 42, coorn t-r3a8c tpeder y eclelnotw
contracted yellow fever^ * ^ P0rtUgUeS6 *“ * " “*■ *>8’ » 8 * P » cent!
is S ill f” eg0ing’.tlle imP“rtance of the skin, or that constitution of the body which
o 3 p 7 a r e n ^ «Tl “ ^ ^
The proportion of white to the dark races, according to our author
™ 14/126 to 121,276; vhfle 4 e to a 6
for yellow fever, were 1947 of the former to 59 of tire latter He
puts down the Portuguese as ^ ^ « -w h e r ea s, they are by no means
a fair-skmned race, compared with the Anglo-Saxons and other
white races; and their mortality corresponded with their complexion:
it was intermediate between the two extremes.
» D a n ie l B l a ir , M.D., Surgeon-General of British Guiana, Report on the first eighteen
months of the fourth Yellow Fever Epidemic of the British Guiana, l e e B r im an l B
Med. Chir. £ev„ January and April Nos., 1855. '
Dr. J. Mendizabel writes me: “The coolies are, in this place
(Vera Cruz), as well as in the West Indies, exempt from yellow
fever.”
From all the information we are able to procure, it seems clear
that the Chinese, in Cuba, are much less liable to fever than Europeans
; but there are no statistics on this point which will enable us
to deal in figures.
The same difficulty exists with regard to statistics for the Mexican
races; but it is certainly the impression of the best-informed physicians
in that eountry, with whom we have corresponded, that the
pure-blooded Mexicans suffer more from yellow fever th a n either the
pure-blood Spaniards, or the mixed bloods. It is asserted, also, that
the cross-breeds of negroes and Mexicans are liable to this disease
just in proportion to the blood of the latter race—-as is the case with
the cross-breeds of whites and negroes.
Yellow fever, with perhaps few exceptions, has a preference for
the races of men in proportion to the lightness of complexion—
showing its greatest affinity for the pure white, and least for the jet
black.26 It is remarkable that the plague prefers the reverse course
—as the following extract, from the best of all authorities on the
subject, will prove.
“ The plague, in Egypt, attacks the different races of men; but ail are not equally
susceptible. Thus, in all the epidemics, the negro race suffers most; after these, the
Berbers or Nubians; then the Arabs of Hedj&z and Yemen; then the Europeans; and,
among these, especially the Maltese, Greeks, and Turks, and generally the inhabitants of
South. Europe” ! 27
A reference to Dr. De la Roches’ ample statistics of mortality
from yellow fever, will show, beyond dispute, that, of the number
attacked, the highest ratio of mortality is almost invariably among
the pure white races—as the Germans, Anglo-Saxons, &c. This has
been accounted for by the fact, that they come from cold latitudes;
and it has grown into an axiom, that the further north the race, the
more liable it is to yellow fever. How, it is easily shown that this
position is not tenable: the contrary is proven, by observations on
the Mexican races. There is scarcely any part of the country of
Mexico, which is, to any extent, populated, that can be called cold;
and yet the Mexicans from the table-lands are, perhaps, little less
liable to yellow fever than Germans; and their own writers assert
that they are quite as much so.
26 As far as we can obtain facts, the dark European, Asiatic, and African races, all show
less susceptibility to yellow fever than the strictly white; and the red man of America, if
an exception, we believe is the only one. It is as vain to attempt to explain his susceptibility,
as it is the exemption of negroes and mulattoes: it is a physiological law of race.
27 A. B. Clot-Bet, Be la Peste, 1840, p. 7; and Coup d’ (Eil sur la Peste, 1851.