434 J A M A I C A. 



I have had occafion, in the courfe of feveral years, to m:irk the 

 fate of many hundred new Negroes ; and am pofitive, that a third 

 part of them have periflied, within three years after their arrival, 

 by this difeafe, through a miftaken method of treating it, and the 

 too eager deilre of tlieir owners, or an affectation of extraordinary 

 ikill in their dodtors, to make a fpeedy cure of it by fome mercu- 

 rial' «g/?r«w. Another miftake lias arifen, by judging from the ap- 

 pearance of an acrimonious humour, fo copioufly dilcharged, that 

 tlie patients required to have their juices correfted by proper 

 fweetenei'S of the blood, and a low, abftemious diet. Tliis error 

 has but lerved to haften their death. Inftead of oatmeal gruel, and 

 fuch weakening meffes, they ought to have their llrength fuftained, 

 during the progrefs of the eruption, and whilll it continues, with 

 hearty food, nourifliing broths, and the like ; which preferve the 

 blood in a balihmic, vigorous ftate, and enable nature to throw out 

 the latent virus. This diftemper, there is reafon to believe, holds 

 a near affinity with the fmall-pox ; at leail, it has been remarked, 

 that the natural fmall-pox, in thofe afflided with the yaws, is 

 commonly very mild. 



Mercury has, in this climate, a great propenfity to fallvate; and 

 moft of the Negroes, by frequently taking mercurials for venereal 

 complaints, have their fluids fo impregnated with them, that the 

 utmoft caution is neceffary in adminilleriug fuch medicines. For 

 this reafon too, they cannot bear frequent repetitions of ftrong pur- 

 gatives ; the confequence of fuch copious evacuations being, almoft 

 always, a tendency to a dropfy. 



The imall-pox has frequently made great ravage among them. 

 Sometimes they have been landed with this dileafe upon them j 

 and this has proved fo fatal, tliat I have known feven in ten die of 

 it, which is equal to feventy in a hundred, or fifty-fix more than 

 the computation made of thofe who die in England by this difbrder 

 taken in the natural way. The late method of inoculation, hap- 

 pily pradifed in this illand, promifes fair to put an end to fuch 

 dreadful examples of mortality ; and I therefore only mention this» 

 as one principal fource of depopulation which exilted here before 

 inoculation was brought into general ufe, which was not long ago. 



Tlie 



