3(-:8 surgeons' eeports — Kentucky — secont> district. 



except in the highest terms of all, I may say that after the men of the North had had sufficient train- 

 iag, they displayed the most irresistible and indomitable bravery, and, amid showers of the enemy's 

 bullets and shells, moved forward with the unyielding regularity of clock-work, while the western 

 men displayed their aptitude for military success in their- very first battles. The battles of Shiloh 

 and Donelson, as contrasted with Bull Eun and Manassas, are referred to as exemplifying this view. 



The colored man possesses some excellent physical qualificatious for making a good soldier. 

 His mode of life gives him great strength in his chest and arms, which enables him to handle a 

 gun or sword with much facility and effect. Accustomed from his childhood to obedience, he will 

 pay the strictest attention to the commands of his officers. Having an innate idea of time, and pos- 

 sessing inuisuai imitative powers, he will readily learn the most difficult. evolutions. That he pos- 

 sesses courage sufficient to make him an effective soldier, no person acquainted with him can deny. 

 Let his officers inform him that he has a right to do a thing desired, and that the officers want it 

 done, and he will do it if it be possible for bravery, determination, and physical manhood to accom- 

 plish it. To insure the greatest efficiency of the colored man as a soldier, much care should be 

 exercised in the appointment of officers over him. They should be competent men, well acquainted 

 with the character, habits, and peculiarities of this race of men. 



Observation has imjiressed npon my mind the necessity and duty of reporting a feature in the 

 organization of colored troops in the United States armies, that is seriously detrimental to the 

 service, viz : that surgeons and assistant surgeons to regiments of colored troops have invariably 

 been, so far as my observation extends, appointed from States in which there were no negro slaves.' 

 These surgeons are wholly unacquainted with the idiosyncracies of the negro, a perfect knowledge 

 of which could be acquired only by years of practice among the sick of this race, with frequent 

 opportunities of observing their peculiarities and habits during sickness and health. Some of 

 these peculiarities I shall attempt to describe, and will here repeat that they can only be learned 

 by extensive observation and research into the history of the black man at diiferent periods and 

 under diflerent circumstances. He differs as widely from the white man physiologically and 

 psychologically as does his skin or hair; hence the importance of understanding his peculiarities, 

 in order to treat his diseases successfully. He is almost invariably of phlegmatic temperament, and 

 consequently predisposed to strumous disease. The phlegmasise ruu a rapid course, soon become 

 asthenic in type, and, unless soou relieved, terminate in scrofulous or tuberculous disease, which 

 makes much more rapid progress in the negro than the white man, and soon terminates in death. 

 He is not a native of the cold humid climate in which we find him, and cannot endure cold or wet 

 weather or exposure of any kind as well as the white man. It is necessary for him to be better 

 clothed and fed, and protected from cold and wet weather; also to be watched over and regulated in 

 everything. His diet, exercise, and sleep should be regulated. He will eat too much meat, and not 

 enough vegetables, both in health and disease ; will sleep too much, and take too little exercise. He 

 should be kept under strict discipline, both in health and disease; for being, almost without excep- 

 tion, uneducated, he has no knowledge of the laws governing his health, and does not know what 

 to do to preserve it, or to restore it when lost. He is entirely incompetent to give a correct history 

 of his case, generally expressing himself as "feeling better or sick all over." He complains but 

 little of pain, sleeps much, and seems to feel no interest in his welfare, and generally auswei's in the 

 affirmative all questions asked him in a medical examination of his case. Nothing is positive 

 ordecided in bis answers. He will take no medicines of his own accord; every dose should be given 

 him by a reliable nurse. His rations should be measured to him inhealth and disease, as in health 

 he will eat too much, and in disease he will eat nothing until convalescent, and then eat too much, 

 and of the grossest food he can procure. The surgeon should be governed in his diagnosis entirely 

 by the physical signs and objective symptoms. The subjective symptoms are not reliable. In the 

 treatment of his disease, great caution should be observed, and a close watch kept over him. He 

 does not bear active treatment in any disease for any considerable length of time. All inflamma- 

 tory diseases run their course more rajjidly than in the white man, and soou become asthenic or 

 typhoid in tyiie, and require stimulants, tonics, nourishing diet, &c. He does not bear well either an- 

 timonials or blood-letting; both rapidly depress his vital powers, and do irreparabledamage if pushed 

 too far. He does not boar mercurials well, is easily salivated, and the disposition to struma greatly 

 increased by the antiplastic properties of the mercury. As purgatives, castor-oil, aloes, and rhubarb 



