156 Eugenie Rollin Corson 



lack of resistive power against certain germs, especially the 

 staphjdococcus, and is another minus factor in lowering the 

 vital equation. While not directly causing death, it may do 

 so indirectly and appear in the mortuary records under other 

 headings. Corre, above quoted, also mentions this predispo- 

 sition, having met with many cases of cold abscess and sup- 

 purative lymphatic glands.* In treating of hepatic abscess 

 he states that while more common with Europeans the relative 

 mortality is greater among the negroes. He states further 

 that the negro, when in Africa and not transported, enjoys 

 considerable immunity against hepatitis, but that outside his 

 own countrjf, even if in a similar climate, he loses this im- 

 munity and shows a mortality equal to, or greater than, that of 

 the European, t 



I have never seen a case of delirium tremens in the negro. 

 I think this is easil}' explained. We usually find deliriutn 

 tremens in those of tough fibre who can stand that heavy and 

 prolonged drinking necessary to develop the disease. The 

 negro cannot stand this heavy and prolonged drinking. He 

 is soon done for and becomes so overcome by the drug that he 

 must let up for a while ; or he becomes disorderly and com- 

 mits some violence which sends him to the barracks and the 

 chain-gang, where his stomach has rest and where he is en- 

 abled to pick up again. The evil effects of alcohol then are 

 seen in acts of violence, in the infiammatorj^ troubles which 

 follow exposure while under the influence of the drug, and 

 those congestions and inflammations of the thoracic and ab- 

 dominal viscera which can be traced directly to alcohol in all 

 its forms. 



Dr. Billings writes : "The proportion in those parts of the 

 countrjr in which the colored distinction is made is much 

 greater among the whites than among the colored, and where 

 the distinction of parentage is made, it is much greater among 

 the Irish than among the Germans, the figures being for the 

 Irish 6.7, for the Germans 2.7, and for the colored .7 per 1,000 

 deaths from known causes. A large proportion of the deaths 



* Op. Cit. , p. 466. 

 tOp. cit., p. 797. 



