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Show 3!)6 ACCLDfATION; OR, THE INFLUENCE OF head, during the day; and, in the hottest night, will sl cp with his head cnvclopcu in a filthy blanket, to keep the musquitocs from annoying him; and yet is exempt from yellow fever, while it i~:~ raging around him. H.io Janeiro has a population of 100,000 whites, and 200,000 blacks and mixed bloods. The former arc mostly Portu()'ucsc · an·d it .is di~licult to explain their exemption from yellow fc~cr, i~ the eptdemiC of 1849-50 (which has continued its march northwards and so ravaged the seaports and other towns of the United State~ siucc)-I say it is difficult to explain the exemption, on any other grou~~ than that of race. Not more than 3 or 4 per cent. of tb0. Brazthans attacked, died; while 29 per cent. of the seamen (for igncrs) died. . It .has be?n rcpcatcdl! asserted, that yellow fever never appeared 1n Rw p~·ovwusly to tlns date; but it is exceedingly questionable whcth~t· 1t has not occurred there in a mild form, but with so little mortal_tty as not to create alarm. Yellow fever docs unquestionably occur Jn _all grades. We published, some years ago, in tLo "Cllarleston ~ c~tcal J onrnal," a sketch of the epidemic which prevailed in ~obtlc lll 1847-of so mild a grade as not to prove fatal probably m more than 2 per cent. of those attacked. A rcfcrcnco to the "Rcpo_rt of tl10 Now Orleans Sanitary Commission," will show that, a~cordlllg to the concurrent te timony of the 1 ading physicians of R10, the fevers of. that city bad assumed an extraordinary type for s~vcml years ~)rcvwu.sly to tho epidemic of 1840-50; and that many of the cas.cs dtffcrcd m no way from yellow fever: even black vomit wa.s seen 1n some cases. ~t is presumable, therefore, that the populatlOn had bcc~1 undct'O'Otng acclimation against this disease for scv~ral years, w1~hout knowing it. Our observation has satisfied us, that tho dark-skmnccl Spm1ial"ds, Portuguese, and other south Europeans, a~ well as the Jews, arc more easily and thoroughly acclimated agamst yellow fever, than the fairer raccs.:IO It. lla been stoutly maintained, by many writers, that intermittent rcmtttcnt, and yellow fever, arc but grades of the s' l" . .~ tl :fi f :.me c 1 case anu .: tcf· est two orms arc endemic, at Rio, tho escape of the in\w.bi-nts t"?m ~cHow fever, in the late epidemic, has boon accounted' for by acchmatlOn through those marsh fevers I '11 t b stop t . J < • Wl no , owcvcr, d 01~rgu~ Wttl ~ny one who contends for tho idctd.iLy of rnarsh :n y~ ow c.vc~·s, m. our present day: if their non-identity be not a~; tov;.n, It lS vam to attempt to establ ish the 110n-idcntity of wo lscascs. That very epidemic continued its march durin()' ' b ao Tho render is rcfoncd to Report of lite N. 0 l . valuable information about Rio Janou·o. ew r eana Samtary Oommis8ion, for much CLIMATE AND DISEASES ON MAN. 397 five years, fl"om Rio to New York; and ravaged hundreds of place& whcr·c remittent :C vcrs were more common and more violent than in H.io. To say nothing of countries ftuthcr south, all tho rcgi n from Now 01"1 ans to Norfolk is dotted with malarial towns, in which yellow fever has prevailed with terrible fatality. 'l'he following extract is fr·om one of tho most competent authorities, ou this subject, in the United States: "1'hc immunity of tho Africrm mce from yellow fever is a problem unsolved; but of tho ldghcst import in physiology and etiology. Whether this immunity be owing to color, or to an unknown transmissible and indestructible modification of tho constitution, originally derived from tho climate of Africa, or from antllomic~tl confonnn.tion or physiologicr1l law, peculiar to tho moo, is not o~tsy to determine. It docs not 11ppel\r th11t yellow fever prevails under an Africttn sun; o.llbough tho epidemic of Now Orlon.ns, in 1853, came well nigh getting tho name 'African yellow fever,' 'African plnguo :' it was for weeks so called . Although non-croolizod negroes o.ro not exempt from yellow fover, yet they suffer little from it, and mroly dio. On tho other hnnd, they 11ro tho most lin.blc to suffer from cholom" [nnd typhoid fovor.-J. C. N. J "As nn ox11mplo of tho susceptibility of this rncc, tnke tho yonr 184·1: nmong 1800 dottths from yellow fever, there WCI'O but throe deaths 11mong tho bln.oks, two having boon ohilclron; or 1 in 000, or 1 in 14,000 of the whole populn.lion." 81 The Doctor goes on to show "that the same immunity from <loath, in this disease, is enjoyed by the black race throughout tho yellowfever zone." The investigations of Dr. Dowl r (and thoro is no one more compotent to examine a histol'ical point of this kind) lea]. him to the conclusion, that yellow fever is 11ot an African c1is asc. If this be true, it is a very strong argt1mcnt in favor of specific distinctness of tho ncgt·o race. We have abundant evidence, in tho United States, that no exposure to high tcmpcmtnrc or marsh cflluvia can protect an individual against the cause of yellow fever. 'L'hc white races who have boon exposed to a tropical sun, and ]ost much of their primitive pl thora and vigor, arc, as a general rul , lcsR violently attacked by yellow fever; but the negro gains his fnll st vi()'or under a tropical sun, and is everywhere exempt from this discasc.32 at DENNF:T Dowr.1m, M.D., "Tableau of tl1e Yetlow Fever of 185H, witli topograpltical, cltronologiMl, and Mstorical sketches of tlte Epidemics of New Orleans, since their origi11 in 1790." s2 'l'ho works of M. lo Dr. 'Boudin-now Mcdocin on chef do l'Hopitttl Militairc dn Roule, Pttris, so won known o.s n distingtlishod tHmy physioi1tn, nt homo, in Or·occo, tmd in Algcl'ia, 1\I'O tho first, so fttr ns wo know, in any lttngnttgo, lhttt n.ppronch this quost,ion of mccH, in rolation to clim!tlo, with o. tntly philosophical spirit. Jlo kindly sent us, scvol'lll yottrH 11go, the following essttys, tho titles of ,which will show the mngo of his invcstigntious:-" Etudes do G6ologic M6dioales, &o."-"Btudos do Pntltologic Compar6o, &c."-" Etndos de O~ogl'llphio M6clicalos, &o."-" Lettt·os sur I' Alg6rio"-" Slntistique do hl popultttion ot de Ia colonisation on Alg6rio"-" Stat.istiquo do Itt mortnliM dos Arm6os." Wo have, in our os~ay, mndc frequent uso of those volume~. f1·om 11otcs w~ hncl tnken while rending thom; and should have mntlo mo~e direct I'Ofcrencc to them, if we hud lu1d |