Handbook of geographical and historical pathology. Vol. III. Ch. XIX, Negro lethargy / by August Hirsch ; translated from the second German edition by Charles Creighton.

  • Hirsch, August, 1817-1894.
Date:
1886
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Handbook of geographical and historical pathology. Vol. III. Ch. XIX, Negro lethargy / by August Hirsch ; translated from the second German edition by Charles Creighton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    seen among negro soldiers in the Bahamas (Gore), and among negro labourers in Brazil (Ribeiro). § 189. Purely a Disease op Negroes, mostly in their Native Country. 1 The disease has been found only in negroes of pure blood, with two exceptions, one a case of a mulatto reported by Chassaniol, and the other of a Creole negro boy reported by Clarke. It has never been seen in other coloured races or in Europeans. As regards its occurrence in negroes away from their native country, Nicolas says that it does not originate in the blacks born in Martinique, but that a few cases of it have developed in negroes imported into the island, and undoubtedly after their arrival there. Guerin gives more definite expression to this fact, when he says that among the negroes imported into the West Indies from the Congo there have certainly been a few cases of lethargy, that some of these have occurred evon a considerable time after arrival, but that there has been none of it in those who have lived in Martinique ten or twenty years, nor among Creole negroes. We learn also from Nicolas that in every ten cases known to him nine were in men and one in a woman. But Corre and Guerin, who could draw upon much larger experience, are agreed that the number of cases is much the same in either sex. It spares no time of life, as Corre has found, but it oftenest attacks negroes from twelve to eighteen years of age, and rarely anyone younger. § 190. Summary op the Etiology. It is obvious that the origin of the malady has nothing to do with influences of climate and soil. There is some foundation for the surmiso that its causo will bo found to lie in certain agencies bound up with the manner of life of the natives in those regions; but no one has succeeded hitherto in reaching anything definite concerning them; and all the hypotheses that havo been tried have proved to be untenable. The opinion often expressed that negro lethargy is a toxic process, has to be set aside on several grounds. The smoking of “ dianba ” (Indian hemp) has been blamed for it (Clarke) ; but that practice obtains all over the East without giving rise to the disease anywhere. Another suspected habit is the inordinate addiction to palm wine, a practice that is indi¬ genous to many other tropical countries where the malady is unknown; moreover, as Corre tells us. the orthodox Mara¬ bouts, who drink nothing but water, are as much subject to lethargy as the veriest topers^ It is equally impossible to find a basis for the widely received doctrino that the disease is due to criminal poisoning. That view found a supporter recently in Corre,1 in the first of his papers on the subject, although he would appear to have abandoned it subsequently ; among other reasons against it, is the occurrence of the malady among negroes away from Africa, as in the West Indies. Another very widely entertained theory of the origin of the disease is that it is a consequence of depressing emotions, particularly those associated with the slave trade (nostalgia, sorrow from the breaking up of families, or the feelings arising out of bad treatment at tho hands of slave-dealers and slave-owners). But for recent times that causo can hardly come into the question to any considerable extent; and the hypothesis would leave it quite inexplicable why tho disease should have been so rare in former times, if it occurred at all, whilst slavery was at its height in the New World, and all those affections of the mind most keenly felt. The chief objection to the hypotheiss, however, is that tho diseaso occurs also in Liberia, among negroes living in freedom in their native seats and amidst orderly, if not particularly good conditions; and that in Martinique, as Guerin informs us, it is oftenest seen in those employed as domestic servants in the towns, and leading a comfortable and perfectly contented life. The last theory that we have to mention arises out of the In his paper in tho ‘ Qaz. wed. de Paris ’ (I. c.), lie throws out the conjecture that it may be a matter of poisoning by certain moulds growing on maize, rice or other vegetable products, tho use of which as food would set up a disease like ergotism. In his second article (' Arch, de nu$d. nnv.,’ 1. c.), nothing further U said of this hypothesis.