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Show H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X J,,C 0. ·~lSSERT. fophers of Europe, have made At-perica thel Olagazine of their faBles ·-- v.-.. --~ and fiCtions ; and in order to render their worlb . more enterta.iaing, from the mat·vellous novelty of their pretended obfervations have afcribed to all the Americans, whatever fingularities. have been oofcrved in one individual, or perhaps in none? 1 he American women are fubj eCl: to the common fentence of naturo, and are not delivered without pains; poffibly, not with fo much apparatus as attends the women of Europe; becaufe they are lefs delicate, and more accufl:omed to the inconvenien~ies of life. Thevenot fc1ys, that the Mogul women arc delivered with great eafe, and that the day after they arc feen going through the fl:rects of the cities, and yet there is no reafon to find fault with their fruitfulnefs, or their confl:itu tion. The quantity and quality of milk in the American women in Mexico, and other countries of America, are well known to the E uropean and Creole ladies, who take them commonly as wet-nurfes to their children; they find that they are wholfome, faithful, and diligent, in fuch fervice. Nor docs it matter to f.1y, that the ancient Americans are talked of, and not the moderns, as M. de Paw h~s fometimes 're" pli~d to his advet:fary Don Pernety ; fince belides, that his prop.ofitions agamll: the Amencans are all meant of the prefent day, as it is manifeft to every one who has read his work, that difl:indion has no place in many countries of America, and particularly in Mexico. The Mexicans ufe, for the moft part, the fame food which they fed upon before the conqueO:.. T.he climate, if poffibly it is changed in fome regions, from the cuttmg down of the woods, and the draining of fiagnant waters, in Mexico is fl:ill the fame. Thofe who have compared, as we h~ve, the accounts of the firfl: Spaniards, with the prefent fiate of that kmgdom, know that the fame lakes, the fame rivet·s, and, in general, the fame woods, fUll fubfifl:. \Vith refped to the mmj es of the American women, we can give no a~count, nor do we know who can. M. de Paw, who has from Berlm feen fo many things of America, has, perhapi, found, in fome French author, the manner of knowing that which we neither can nor chufe to enquire into. But granting that the menfirual evacuatio~ of the American women ia fcanty and irregular, it argues nothi11g :1gainll: 5 li I S T 0 R Y 0 F IVI E X I C 0 . againfl: their confl:it~tion , as the quantity of that evacuation depends, as coun t de Buffon ju{l:ly obfc rves, on the quantity of their aliment, a 1d infenfible pct-fpiration. Worn n who eat much, and take little excrcHc, have abund;.tnt mrmjes. In hot countries, wht:re perfpiration is more COJ~ious than it is in col.d, that evacuation is mor<:: fparit1g. If the fcantmcfs of fuch cvacuat1on can pro ccd from iobriety in eating, ~rom the heat of the clime and exercif·, why produce it as an argument of a bad conft:itution ? Belides, we do not know how to n:concile that fc:mtinc~ of the metffes with the fu perabundance of fluid·, which M. de Paw fuppofcs in the women of America, to be a confcqucnce of the difo rder of their phyfical confl:itution. The proofs abovemen tioned of the wcak nc.G of the Americans, are not better fupported. M. de Paw !ays, that they were overcome ia wrc{l:l ing by all the Europeans , and that they funk under a moderate burden ; that by a computation made two hu ndred thou!and Americans were found to have pcrilhcd in one year from canying of baggage. With refpcCt to the firfl: point, it would be necdlary that the experiment of wre!l:l ing was made between many individuals of each contineat, and that the viCtory ihould be attdl:ed by the Americans as vv,ell as the Europeans. But however that may be, we do not preten<i to maintain, that the Americans arc fl:ronger than the Europeans. T hey may be lefs !l:rong without the human fpcc ies having degenerated in them. The Swifs arc firongcr than the Italians, and fii ll we do not bel ieve the Italians are degenerated, nor do we tax the climate of I taly. T he inil:ance of two hundred thoufand Americans having died in one year, under the weight of baggage, were it true. would not convince us [o much of the weaknefs of the Americans, as of the inhumanity of the E uropeans . In the fame manner that thofc two hundred thoufand Americans peri!hcd, two b undred thoufand Prumans would alfo hav~ p~ri!hed had they been obliged to make a journey of between three and four hundred mil es, with a h undred pounds of burden upon their backs ; if they had collars of iron about their necks, and were obliged to carry that load over rocks and mountains ; if thofe who became exhaull:ed with fatigue, or wounded their feet fo as to impede their progrefs, had their heads cut off that they might not retard the pace of the reft; and if they were not allowed bu ~ a iinall morfel Vor .. II. X x of 231 DISSE.RT. v. ~ |