OR GUINEA WORM. 
511 
it often happens that fifty negroes are laid up at once ; — that from 
the end of March or beginning of April to the middle of Novem- 
ber, not one new instance of the disease has occurred, although 
it sometimes happens that the ulcers occasioned by the imperfect 
extraction of the worm have not entirely healed before the month 
of June; — that this however is very rare. Mr. T. gave some 
remarkable instances of the disease proceeding from the drinking 
of the well water. A negro boy, a domestic of his own, had one 
year, 1793, several guinea-worms ; and as he was supposed 
never to have drunk or made any use of this water, his case was 
considered as a disapproving argument of the efficiency of the 
water in producing the disease. On a careful investigation, 
however, it was discovered that, during the summer of 1793, the 
boy had drank of the well water, but at no time before. Three 
infants, from five to seven months old, had each a worm in one 
of their legs. On inquiry of their mothers, it was found that 
they had, during the same summer, given them water of the well 
to drink. 
Mr. Scott, the agent of a large plantation, called Grand Ance, 
similarly circumstanced in almost every respect to the property 
Mr. Templeman had the charge of, favoured me with answers 
of precisely the same import. But here a very remarkable proof 
of the cause of the disease being confined to the internal use of 
water of wells dug in tuf, and subject to the ebb and flow of the 
tide, was furnished. Mr. Scott having minutely inquired into 
the nature and cause of the worm, which often deprived him of 
the labour of a large portion of a very numerous gang of negroes, 
suspected the tuf well water to be in fault, and, under this sus- 
picion, had cisterns built sufficient for a large supply of rain 
water, and filled up the wells. The following year not a single 
instance of guinea-worm occurred ; and I understand it has never 
since appeared. 
In a letter I have lately received from Mr. Templeman, dated 
Morn Rouge, Grenada, 20th June, 1814, he thus writes to me 
(I should have observed, that, on my representation, Mr. Thorn- 
ton had cisterns built ; the happy effect of which is thus shortly 
stated in this letter) : — “ As to the guinea-worm, none have 
made their appearance in any of the negroes since about twelve 
months after your quitting this island ; and that twelve months 
they were more favourable, and did not come to bad ulcers and 
sores, as you before saw them ; nor have I heard or known since 
that time, now eighteen years, of any guinea-worms being on 
any of the negroes in this quarter.” 
[To be continued.] 
