The Care of Slaves in the West Indies

Scottish physician James Grainger (1721?-1766) published this account, directed to slaveholders, of the diseases afflicting slaves brought to the West Indies and methods to care for them.  He cautions that "Let it not, however, be imagined, that the precepts contained therein, will qualify unmedical readers to cure their sick Negroes without proper medical assistance.... All that I mean is, that those who have the management of slaves, and will give themselves the trouble to consult this Essay, will not henceforth be so much at a loss how to treat the diseased, till proper advice can be called in, than they have hitherto been. Yet for want of this knowledge in managers, I have often observed the most fatal consequences ensue."