SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 95 



is a disease which a person can never have but once. I have 

 seen only one instance of a white man's having it: therefore 

 it appears ahnost peculiar to the negroes. There are black 

 . women who inoculate their children for this disorder ; its vio- 

 lence is thereby lessened. 



The stings of musquitoes or gnats, I found very disagreeable, 

 as they are succeeded by large red pimples, the scratching of 

 which frequently occasions so many ulcers. These insects 

 always attack new comers in preference to others. Lime juice 

 and water is found to be the best preservative against their 

 attacks, as also a cure for their stings : I used to bathe my 

 hands and feet with it before going to bed. 



The chigoe, or jigger, is a sort of flea harboured in the sand, 

 that gets between the skin and the flesh, but oftener under the 

 toe-nails, where in a short time it becomes as large as a pea, 

 when it assumes the form of a bladder, in which are deposited 

 many hundreds of eggs, that in the process of time come to 

 so many young chigoes. But before they arrive at this state 

 of maturity, a most intolerable itching is felt, which is the 

 signal for extracting them. The negroes are very expert at 

 doing it with a sharp-pointed penknife, and the great art is to 

 lake out the bladder without breaking, when the cavity is 

 filled up with tobacco-ash, or snuff. Sand-flies are a very 

 small but troublesome insect, scarcely larger than a pin's-head. 



