es
combined. They are distinguished from inflammatory affections by the
pyrexial symptoms not being strongly marked, or marked at all--by the
puffy or bloated appearance of the face and lips--by the slavering
mouth--the highly charged tongue--and by the torpor of mind and body. In
a word, all the symptoms point to a deficient aeration of the blood, or
a kind of half way asphyxia. A torpid state of the system, listlessness
and inactivity almost approaching to asphyxia from the diminished
quantity of oxygen consumed by the lungs of the negro, form a striking
contrast with the energetic, active, restless, persevering Anglo-Saxon,
with a tendency to phlogosis and phthisis pulmonalis, from the surplus
quantity of oxygen consumed by his lungs. Blistering the nape of the
neck, so irritating in nearly all of the diseases of the Saxon race, is
almost a sovereign remedy or specific for a large proportion of the
complaints that negroes are subject to; because most of them arise from
defective respiratory action. Hence whipping the lungs to increased
action by the application of blisters over the origin of the respiratory
nerves, a remedy so inexpedient and so often contra-indicated in most of
the maladies of the white man, has a magic charm about it in the
treatment of those of the negro. The magic effect of a blister to that
part of the Ethiopian's body, in a large class of his ailments, although
well known to most of the planters and overseers of the Southern
States, is scarcely known at all to the medical profession beyond those
boundaries. Even here, where that portion of the profession who have had
much experience in the treatment of their diseases, and are aware of the
simple fact itself, do not profit by it in many cases where it is
indicated; because they do not perceive the indication clearly, so long
as the rationale of the remedy remains unexplained.

Your asking for the proofs of my assertion, "that the negro consumes
less oxygen than the white man," has led me into a new, extensive and
unexplored field of science, where the rationale of that and many other
important facts may be found springing up spontaneously. We have medical
schools in abundance teaching the art of curing the ailments, and even
the most insignificant sores, incident to the half-starved, oppressed
pauper population of Europe--a population we have not got, never had and
never can have, so long as we have negro slaves to work in the cane,
cotton and r