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Show DISSERT. V. '--v--..1 .. H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. the vigorous M. de Paw and other indefatigable Europeans are occu. pied in writing invetl:ives againll: th~m. . Thcfe labours, in which the Ind1ans are contmually employed, certainly attcft their healthinefs and firength; as, if they are able to undergo fuch fatigues, they cannot be difeafed, nor have an exhnufled ftream of blood in their veins, as M. de Paw infinuatcs. In order to make it believed that their conll:itutions are vitiated, he copies what. ever he finds written by hifl:orians of. America whether true or falfe, refpeCl:ing the difeafes which reign in fome particular countrie.s of that great contiuent; and efpecially concerning the venereal d1:il:emper, which he conceives to be truly American. With refpeCl: to the venereal diforder, we !hall treat of it at large in another Differtation : concerning other difeafes, we grant, that in fame countries in the wide compafs of Ameri ca men are expofed more than elfewhere to the difiem pers which are occafioned by the in temperature of the air, or the pernicious quality of the aliments; but it is certain according to the affcrtion of mally refpeCl:ablc authors acquainted with the new world, that the American countries nrc for the moft part healthy; and if the Americans ~.vere. difpofed to rctaliJ.te on M. de Paw and other European authors who wr:ite as he does, they would have abundant fubj etl: of materials to throw difcrcdit on the clime of the old continent, and the conftitution of its inhabitants in the endemic diftempers which prevail there, fuch as the el£'phcmtiajis and icprofy of Egypt and Syria ( p ), the ver6en of fouthern AGa, the dragoncello or worm of Medina, the pircal of Malabar, the yaws or Guinea-evil, the tt'riqfi' or morbus pedtcularis of Little T artary, the [curvy and dyfentery of northern countries, the plica of Poland, the goitiers of Tyrol and many alpine countries, the itch, rickets, the fmall-pox (q), and above all the plague, which has fo often depopu-lated (f>) The cl~pbnutiafis, an endemic diCcafe of Egypt, nnd entirely unknown in America, was fo common in Europe in the thirteenth century, th at there were, according to what Mathew ('1tris fays, an exact wri ter of that time, nineteen thoufand hofpit als for it. (q) 'J he fmall ·pox was c~ rri ed to America by the Europea11s, and made as r;reat a havoc there ns the venereal difcafc did in Europe. The rickets is a rliO emper unknown in the new world; this we conceive the principal caufe of there being fewer deformed and imperfect fl1aped people th ere th:m in Emopc. The itch e:xi!ls either not at all, or fo rardy, that dnring m:my years rc !idence in di tfc rc;nt tOLlntrics of Mexico, we never faw <me infected with that dif· nfe, nor ever h~:1rd of any one who was, The vo111i1o pricto, \Vhich appears to be an endemic dif-tcmper H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. 34I lated whole cities and provinces of the old continent, and which DISSERT .. annually commits imm~nfe havoc in the Eafi: the mofl: terrible fcourge ~ of the human race, but hitherto warded ofT from the new world. Lafl:ly, The fuppofed feebl enefs and unfound bodily habit of the Americans do not correfpond with the length of their lives. Among thofe Americans whofe great fatigues and exceOive toils do not anticipate their death, there are not a few who reach the age of eighty, ninety, and an hundred years; and, what is more, without there being obferved in them that decay which time commonly produces in the hair, in the teeth, in the ikin, and in the mufcles of the human body, This phenomenon, fo much admired by the Spaniards who refide ia Mexico, cannot be afcribcd to any other caufe than the vigour of their confiituttons, the temperance of their diet, and the falubrity of their clime. H iftorians, and other perfons who have fojourncd there for many years, report the fame thing of other countries of the new world. But if pofiibly there is any region where life.: is not fo much prolonged, at leafi there is no one where it is fo much fhortened as in Guinea, in Sierra Leona, in the Cape of Good H ope, and other countries of Africa, in which old age commonly begins at forty; and he wl.1o arrives at fifty is looked upon as an oetogcnary is with us (r). Of them it mjgbt be faid with fame !hew of reafon, that their blood is wafted, and their phyfical confiitution is ov erthrown ~ temper alfo, is cxtc mrly modern, and is not fe !t ex ~p t i.n fomc p lace~ of the torrid ~one frequented by Europeans. 'I he fi r[\ who ~v c re fw~cd wah. 1t wc r~ thl! fmlors of fom~ E uropc~n· vcficls, who immediately after the bad thct they had dunng the1r voy:1ge, ent grccdlly of fnur, and drank immoderately of brandy. Ulloa nflirms, that in Carth age na, one of the m o~ unheal thy plRccs of America, thb diflcmper was not known before the yrar 1 7z9, and rhat 1t be· g~m among the crews of the: European vei!Cls, which nr rivcd there uodcr the ~IJmma nd of D. D. Giufiiniani. ( r) The llottcnto ts, fays J!uffon, arc (hort livers, for th ey hardly .rx~ced .for.ty years of, age. Drack attc O:s that ce rtain nations inhabiting the frontiers or tl:e EthiOpian ddhictS, on account of the fcarcity of aliment, feed on falted locufts, and that th1s wretched ~ood p1:od uc~s a horrid cftcct; when they arri ve at the age offorty, ce rtain flyi ng in l'efls breed upon th r1r bod1es, which foon occafion their deaths, by devo uring firQ thei r belly, thell their brcafi, and l;d1!y their very bones. Thefc, and the kind of infc.:ls by which, as M. de P:11\· himfclf confctres, the inhabitants of Little Tartary arc dc!l royed. are ce rtainly greatly worfe than thofc worma which, he fays, are found arnong!l: fame people of America. S E. C T .. |