Northern States and of Europe, is also sometimes fearfully prevalent among the slaves. 'It is of importance,' says the Doctor, 'to know the pathognomic signs in its early stages, not only in regard to its treatment, but to detect impositions, as negroes afflicted with this complaint are often for sale; the acceleration of the pulse, on exercise, incapacitates them for labour, as they quickly give out, and have to leave their work. This induces their owners to sell them, although they may not know the cause of their inability to labour. Many of the negroes brought South, for sale, are in the incipient stages of this disease; they are found to be inefficient labourers, and are sold in consequence thereof. The effect of superstition—a firm belief that he is poisoned or conjured—upon the patient's mind, already in a morbid state (dysæsthesia), and his health affected from hard usage, over-tasking or exposure, want of wholesome food, good clothing, warm, comfortable lodging, with the distressing idea (sometimes) that he is an object of hatred or dislike, both to his master or fellow-servants, and has no one to befriend him, tends directly to generate that erythism of mind which is the essential cause of negro-consumption.'
- * * 'Remedies should be assisted by removing the original cause of the
dissatisfaction or trouble of mind, and by using every means to make the patient comfortable, satisfied, and happy.'"
Longing for home generates a distinct malady, known to
physicians as Nostalgia, and there is a suggestive analogy
between the treatment commonly employed to cure it and
that recommended in this last advice of Dr. Cartwright.
Discipline.—Under the slave system of labour, discipline
must always be maintained by physical power. A lady of
New York, spending a winter in a Southern city, had a hired
slave-servant, who, one day, refused outright to perform some
ordinary light domestic duty required of her. On the lady's
gently remonstrating with her, she immediately replied:
"You can't make me do it, and I won't do it: I aint afeard
of you whippin' me." The servant was right; the lady could
not whip her, and was too tender-hearted to call in a man, or
to send her to the guard-house to be whipped, as is the
custom with Southern ladies, when their patience is exhausted,
under such circumstances. She endeavoured, by kindness
and by appeals to the girl's good sense, to obtain a moral
