Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1902-09-02
NEGROES, PHYSICAL CHANGE.
Extraordinary Deterioration
Body and Mind Since the War.


Body and Mind Since the War.
New York Medical Recorder)
Tuberculosis has, in recent years, De-
come SO prevalent among the negroes
AS to Justify that belief that it may soon
he a yeritable scourge to the race. The
susceptibility of negroes to consumption
has apparently undergone remarkable
change within the last thirty Or forty
years. During the days OF slavery, Inc
disease was so seldom found among them
that they were considered almost immune
to it. In fact some of the older writer's
took the stand squarely, and asserted that
consumption was unknown to the race.
From being thus so rare as to be almost
unknown, it has, in a single generation,
become so prevalent and SO fatal that
now more negroes in the South are dying
of tuberculosis than of any other disease
While it exists among all classes, It is IN
the densely populated quarters OF towns
and cities, where they live in oYercroWded
and poorly ventilated houses, that 1t IS
found to be most frequent. In institutions
where large Numbers are more or less
closely confined, the ravages OF this dis
ease are becoming truly alarming.
The following quotations on paper on
the Future of the Colored Race In the
United States" published some years ago
by DR.. Eugene Corson, is interesting, In
this connection. He says: All the IN
forna ton which l have been able to OBJ
tain has satisfied me that the race was
healthy one. even healthier in the main
than the whites. Since the war. things
have been reversed; the colored race, as
a race, is not a healthy and robust one:
their vitality is in a state Of unstable
equilibrium; liable from any undue strain
to give way Statistics from institutions
having both white and colored patients,
= ~. to- ns.e, hi n
resist the onslaught of disease. DR..
Mitchell, the superintendent of the Mis-
sissippi State Insane Hospital, in mis- last
report, says: There is one great differ
ence between the races as regards NOR
tally, and although our treatment. both
dietic and medicinal, is the same, our loss
from death among the colored far exceeds
that sustained by the whites
Turning from the physical condition OF
| the negro, let US now investigate the men
| tai stability of the race. Since 1850, the
negroes in this section. and the same is
| true Of the South generally. have under
gone such change in their tendency tc
| the development of mental diseases as is
shown by no other people in similarly
short period of lime in the whole history
! OF mankind. I will take the statistics OF
our own State, Georgia, typical South
5ern State as they will probably be OF
more interest to this society than wou;t
| those Of the whole United States. II
/ forty years the total negro population IL
/ the State has been little more thar
/ doubled, While the number of insane ha!
Increased twenty-fold. No other sucl
rapid and radical change in the menta
stability of race is recorded in history
i This outburst of insanity becomes still
moro remarkable when we consider tina
/ for generations prior to 1860 the coloret
/ people had been free from mental disease
1t has developed, therefore, without TIL
slightly hereditary faint ssss
lacannot leave this subjec thout call
ing a ttention to ONO more danger which
lis threatening the negro at this time. tha