DISSERTATION ON THE SAWS, 1U 



Physicians or surgeons who are employed on estates are 

 not understood to have tire immediate charge of Negroes in 

 the yaws, unless some other acute disease intervene, as fever, 

 dysentery, pleurisy, &c The risk such gentlemen run is 

 very great; for, should a medical man contract this filthy dis- 

 ease, his fortune and future prospects are ruined. He must 

 be secluded many months from society ; and if he at last es- 

 capes with his life it is well. From hence we may sec the 

 reason that the yaws is so little understood, and often so ill 

 treated. Lastly, We may more readily apologize for the de- 

 fects in most authors, as they write from the report of others, 

 not from their own observation. 



On the coast of Guinea, the Negroes take no pains to avoid 

 the yaws, they rather seem to invite it, by keeping the in- 

 fected with the sound in the same family. On this account, 

 most of the Guinea Negroes brought to the West Indies 

 have had the disorder when children : and, surely it is the 

 best time of life to have it, as the juices of children are more 

 bland than those of adults, and their mothers can easier feed 

 and keep them clean. 



It is probable that the natives of Africa have a better way 

 of treating the yaws than we have in the "West Indies. We 

 never see any new Negroes with distortions of the limbs, or 

 other ill consequences of the yaws, imported, but perhaps 

 this is owing to the merchants on the coast rejecting such, 

 when offered for sale. 



The indications of cure of the yaws are, 



1st, To support the patient's strength. 



&%, To promote a discharge by the skin. 



iidlt/, To correct the vitiated juices. And, 



Uhly, To repair the injuries done to the constitution. 



First, To support the patient's strength, a generous diet 

 of animal food, with a due proportion of wine, or diluted 



