216 



perceived by others. Even then, they will never 

 acknowledge the way in which they have con- 

 tracted it ; but men and women, whose noses 

 almost shake while speaking to you, will still insist 

 upon it that their illness arises from catching cold, 

 or from a strain in lifting a weight, or, in short, 

 from any cause except the true one. Yet why 

 they act thus it is difficult to imagine ; for certainly 

 it does not arise from shame. 



Indeed, it is one of their singular obstinacies, 

 that, however ill they may be, they scarcely ever 

 will confess to the physician what is really the 

 matter with them on their first coming into the 

 hospital, but will rather assign some other cause 

 for their being unwell than the true one ; and it is 

 only by cross-questioning, that their superintend- 

 ents are able to understand the true nature of their 

 case. Perhaps this duplicity is occasioned by 

 fear ; for in any bodily pain it is not possible to be 

 more cowardly than the negro ; and I have heard 

 strong young men, while the tears were running 

 down their cheeks, scream and roar as if a limb 

 was amputating, although the doctoress was only 

 applying a poultice to a whitlow on the finger. I 

 suppose, therefore, that dread of the pain of some 

 unknown mode of treatment makes them conceal 

 their real disease, and name some other, of which 

 they know the cure to be unattended with bodily 

 suffering or long restraint. In the disease I allude 

 to, such a motive would operate with peculiar 



