400 DIFFERENCES IN THE EXTERNAL SENSES. 



In three Negroes, who died of disease, Soemmerring 

 found the same morbid ajjpearances ; and they were pecu- 

 liar. They all perished with symptoms of consumption. 

 Besides induration and abscess of the lungs, they had 

 , thickening of tlie coats of the intestines, and deposition of 

 a steatomatous matter in them. In the first, there were 

 caseous concretions in several parts of the abdomen; and 

 the small intestines seemed as if covered by a layer of fat. 

 The bronchial glands were greatly diseased. In the second, 

 the intestinal canal and peritoneum were everywhere united 

 by adhesions, and beset with rather hard yellowish-black 

 tubercles, of various size and form : the mesenteric glands 

 were diseased. In the third, the appearances were nearly 

 similar ; the abdominal viscera all adhering together, and 

 covered by a kind of adipous stratum *. 



I have seen similar appearances to these in the bodies of 

 some Negroes. The morbid change of the bowels, of which 

 the coats are thickened by a black and yellow newly deposited 

 substance, is different from any thing I have seen in 

 Europeans. 



Monkeys are carried off in these climates by consump- 

 tion, and tubercular affections of the abdominal viscera. 

 They exhibit morbid appearances analogous to those just 

 mentioned ; to which, affections of the bones are often 

 added. The general unhealthy condition of the frame in 

 both cases would, I apprehend, be termed scrofula by no- 

 sologists ; and its cause is probably the coldness of the cli- 

 mate, together, in the case of the animals, with confinement, 

 impure air, and unnatural food. 



The disease called the yaws is a peculiar morbid produc- 

 tion of Africa, and has been conveyed by the Negro slaves 

 to the West Indies, where it seems to be communicable to 

 Europeans f. 



The dark-coloured races exhibit in general a great acute- 

 ness of the external senses, which is in some instances 



* Ueber die Korperliche Verschiedenheit ; ^ 67, 68. 

 f Dr. Bateman's Practical Synnpsis ; ord. vii. No. 9. 



