154 Eugene Rollin Corsoji 



the whites 20.54, ^"^ fo^ ^^^^ colored 5.85 ; in the females the 

 proportions are, for the whites 35.44, and for the colored 

 19.32." From all I can learn, however, cancer is more com- 

 mon now than before emancipation when the vital equation of 

 the race was better. The cases I meet are very rapid, espec- 

 ially of the cervix uteri. The most malignant sarcoma I have 

 ever seen was in a mulatto. Of osteo-sarcoma I have seen 

 but four cases, three negroes and one white. Of the two 

 cases of malignant lymphoma I recall, one was white and one 

 colored. 



It is an interesting fact that just across the border from ma- 

 lignancy there are certain tumors to which the negro is very 

 liable. Of these the fibromata are especially noticeable ; the 

 uterine fibroids, fibroma molluscum of the skin, the tendency 

 to keloid tissue, all show this great fibrous-tissue prolifera- 

 tion. I have .seen uterine fibroids of enormous size, and es- 

 pecially among the mulattoes. I am constantly called upon 

 to remove fibromas of the lobule of the ear caused by the irri- 

 tation of the ear ring. Fibromata of the neck are common, 

 starting from enlarged lymphatic glands, a frequent trouble 

 with them. 



The formation of keloid tissue and hypertrophied scar- 

 tissue seems naturally to follow this connective-tissue prolifera- 

 tion. I have seen it mostly on the breast and neck following 

 operations. Erythema nodosum seems but the first step in 

 the pathological process producing fibroma moluscum. I have 

 seen but two cases of this trouble and they were both colored. 



On this same line I may mention arterio-sclerosis which I 

 believe to be a not uncommon disea.se among the colored, al- 

 though rarely recognized as such. We get but few chances 

 for po.st-mortems which would help us so much in our patho- 

 logical tables. A further and more pronounced condition, 

 atheroma, is constantly found. I have recently had a most 

 remarkable case of this kind in a negro about fifty-five 

 years old who looked seventy, and whose brachial artery was 

 subcutaneous and outside the deep fascia from the axilla to 

 the elbow. By pinching up the artery with the finger all cir- 

 culation in the arm was controlled. Its atheromatous condi- 



