Of the negroes. 293 



labor in a hot fun in the Weft Indies, the black men often 

 walk five or fix miles to comply with a venereal afhgna- 

 tion. 



6. The big lip, and flat nole fo univerfal among the ne- 

 groes, are fymptoms of the leprofy. 1 have more than 

 once feen them in the Pennfylvania hofpital. 



7. The woolly heads of the negroes cannot be accounted 

 for from climate, diet, ftate of fociety, or bilious difeafes, 

 for all thofe circumftances, when combined have not pro- 

 duced it in the natives of Aha and America who inhabit 

 fimilar latitudes. Wool is peculiar to the negro. Here 

 the proofs of fimilarity in the fymptoms of leprofy, and in 

 the peculiarities of the negro body appear to fail, but there 

 is a fa£t in the hiftory of the leprofy which will probably 

 throw fome light upon this part of our fubjedt. The Tri- 

 choma, or Plica Folonica of the Poles is a fymptom of le- 

 profy. This is evident not only from the caufes which 

 originally produced it, but from its fymptoms as defcribed 

 in a late publication by F. L. De La Fontaine.'* From this 

 faft it would feem that the leprofy had found its way to the 

 covering of the head, and from the variety of its eifedls up- 

 on the fkin, I fee no difficulty in admitting that it may as 

 readily have produced wool upon the head of a negro, as 

 matted hair upon the head of the Poles. 



But how fliall we account for the long duration of this co- 

 lor of the ikin through fo many generations and even ages ? 

 — 1 anfwer — i. That the leprofy is the moft durable in its 

 defcent to pofterity, and the moft indeftrudtable in its na- 

 ture of any difeafe we are acquainted with. In Iceland Dr. 

 Van Troil tells us, it often difappears in the fecond and 

 third, and appears in the fourth generation.f 2dly. No 

 more happens here than what happens to many nations 



* Surgical and medical treaties upon various fubjeds refpcftinff Poland, 

 t Letters on Iceland, p. 122. '^ o 



who 



