[153] We only know of one painting in which Egyptians themselves are represented in a like position; it is in the British Museum, and is on a tomb. It is a group of persons squatted behind a flock of geese. It is right to remark, however, that the artist may have been rather puzzled about its composition, more complicated than usual, and that the inartistic profiles of his figures, which almost cover one another, greatly diminish the value of the picture with reference to our subject.
[154] Geographische Nosologie oder die Lehre von den Veränderungen der Krankheiten in den Verschiedenen Gegenden der Erde, in Verbindung mit Physicher Géographie und Naturgeschichte des Menschen, 8vo, Stuttgart, 1813.
[155] Traité de Géographie Médicale, 1857: Introduction, p. 29.
[156] [“The great question of acclimatisation has hitherto been treated lightly enough. ‘A firm resolution not to be conquered by a malady,’ says Malte-Brun, ‘is, in the opinion of most doctors, one of the most efficacious preventives of disease. Our body depends on our intelligence. In every climate the nerves, the muscles, the blood-vessels, in relaxing or in stretching, in dilating or in contracting, soon take the particular state which suits the degree of heat or cold which is borne by the body.’ Thus, according to this celebrated geographer, man has only to exercise his will in order to accommodate his organism to all the difficulties of a new temperature and a new climate.” H. J. C. Beavan, The Acclimatisation of Man (Social Science Review, February 21, 1863.)—Editor.]
[157] Hirsch, Handbuch der Historisch-Geographischen Pathologie, § 10. With the author of this immense compilation we refer our readers (with reference to this relative immunity of Negroes from marsh-fever) to the works of Jobin, Tschudi, M’Cabe, Hunter, Arnold, Cameron, Heymann, Epp, Bartlett, Thomson, Tidyman (Philad. Journ. of Med. Science, vol. iii, No. 6), etc.
[158] Epidemiological Society, 3rd June, 1861; Medical Times and Gazette, 29th June, 1861, No. 574.
[159] [“In spite of ‘previous acclimatisation,’ a Negro regiment was almost entirely destroyed by chest disease at Gibraltar, in 1817, within the short space of fifteen months.” Acclimatisation of Man (Social Science Review, February 21, 1863).—Editor.]
[160] “Si no acontecía ahorcar al Negro, nunca moría.” Compare Herrera, Hist. Gener. de los Hechos de los Castellanos, dec. 2, Book III, chap. xiv.
[161] Bancroft (Essay 273); Blair, Some Account of the last Yellow Fever Epidemic of British Guiana, London, 1850; Jackson; Hirsch, Handbuch der Historisch-Geographischen Pathologie, § 36.
[162] “It is a well-established fact, that there is something in the Negro constitution which affords him protection against the worst effects of yellow fever, but what it is I am unable to say.”—Fenner. Compare Hirsch, Handbuch, § 36.