The Colored Race 157 



reported as due to alcoholism occur in connection with delirium 

 tremens and this form of disease is rare in the colored race."* 



To the physician in active practice, however, it is not nec- 

 essary to see alcoholism in the form of delirium tremens to 

 realize its evil effects. It is seen in so many side channels as 

 inciting to congestions, catarrhal inflammations, fibrous proli- 

 feration, and a general lowering of the vital powers. It often 

 turns the scale when the patient is fighting for his life. It 

 diminishes his working capacity and mental acumen. These 

 evil effects are but too plainly seen among the colored, so that 

 a review of the deaths from delirium tremens can in no way 

 show the extent of the evil. The large number of cases of 

 "dropsy" and "heart disease," and evident arterio-sclerosis, 

 is probably in a measure due to alcoholism. It must be re- 

 membered, too, that it is only the cheaper spirits they can buy, 

 largely composed of methyl alcohol. Alcoholism directly 

 and indirectly has always been an immense factor in the mor- 

 tality of the lower classes. It played havoc among the Amer- 

 ican Indians, and the same story comes to us from India. 



The question of insanity is an interesting one. In search- 

 ing through the records at the Ordinary's office, I find there 

 have been 84 cases of insanity among the whites and 133 

 among the colored since 1879. Through the courtesy of Dr. 

 T. O. Powell, Superintendent of the State Lunatic Asylum at 

 Milledgeville, I have some interesting figures bearing on the 

 subject. In i860 there were only 44 insane negroes in the 

 State in a population of 465,698, or one insane negro to every 

 10,584. The Census of 1870 showed 129 insane negroes in a 

 population of 545,142, or one colored insane to 4,225. The 

 census of 1880 gave 411 colored insane, or one to 1,764 of the 

 population. 



All this shows a great increase in the liability to insanity, 

 and while it is still more frequent among the whites, the rate 

 at which the colored have increased in this direction promises 

 to outstrip the whites at no very distant day. And this is to 

 be expected when we consider the greater strain of to-day 

 brought to bear upon them, the evil influences of syphilis, 



*Vol. xii, p. 797. 



