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Show HISTORY OF MEX -I'CO. DISSER T. difeafe was not peculiar folcly to the ifiand Haiti, or Hifpaniola, but IX. ][c '--"v--1 ·a o common to many regions of the old continent, and, pernaps, td all t~e eq uinotti:ll countries of the world in which it prevailed from anti<JUity. This ingenuous confeffion/from ::t .perfon fo well informed on this fubjeet, nnd befides fo prejudiced ngainft America, as well as the efiimonies above mentioned, are fufficicnt to demonll:rate, that although . we fitppofe the French evil to have been anciently exifting it'l the new world~ nothing can be adduced on this fubjeet by the Europeans againft Amen a, that cannot be C..1id by America againft many countries of thrt old world, and that if the blood of the Americans was corrupted, as M. de Pavr woukl argue, that of the Afiatics and Africans was· not more wholfome·. Dr. Afl:ruc adds, that from thofc countries of Afia. and Afi·ica in· which the French evil was endemic, it t~ight be communicated' by commerce to the. neighbouring people, though not to the Europeans; bccaufc, the tornd zone having been deemed uninhabitable, there wa~ 1:0 commerce between th~fe countries and Europe. But who is igno 1a:nt of the commerce wh1ch Egypt had for many centuries with the cquino~lial countries of Afia, and on another fide with Italy? Why therefore, tmght n~t the ~Gatic merchants have brought along with their drugs the French dtfeafe 1nto Egypt, and from thence the Venetians Genoefe and Pifans, ~arry it i~to Italy, as they had for ~long time a' continuai c.:ornmerce WJth the ctty of Alexandria, in the fame manner as other Europeans carried into Italy from Soria and Arabia, the leprofy and fmall-pox? Befides, among the many Europeans, who, from the twelfth 'Ct.ltury forward, undertook to travel into the fouthern countries of Aha, namely B. cii Tudela, Carpini, Marco Polo, and Mandeville. :111.10ngfl: whom fome, as M. de P<lW fays, advanced as far as China' 11~1gh t not one b~·ing witl: him on his rctun1 to Europe, the infeCtio~ ft .om thole Afiat1c ·ountnes? Her·e we do not treat of what actually dJd ha:~en, but o.nly ?f that whi~h might have happened. . . Tl~c 1 rench cvJl nught not only pafs from Afia, but alfo from Afn ·c.a tnt~ .Europe, before t.he difcovery of America; as the Portuguefe~ thu ty yc,u s bel ore the glonous expedition of Columbus, had difcovered a great pal't of the equinoctial countries of Africa, and carried on commerce thl:re. Might 110t fomc Portuguefc, therefore, infeCted thence with the H I ~ T 0 R Y O• F . M E. X: r: C 0. tlie French evil, communicate it to his country people, and in co'urfc to other nations of Europe, .as poffibly did happen from what we !11all fay prefently? Dr. Aftrucmay thus obferve, by how many. channels the irench evil might be communicated to Europe withbut the in.tcrven:tion Qf America, .• although ,the .. ancien.ti: conceived the torrid zone in .. acceffible. ,. ' · , I ' ( ) S E C T. III. T'h.e Fr.endJ If.vil migbt ar!ft.in Europe without Hpnt.a~tol1. ,1 ) ~, BEFORE we hahtile ·this_ argument, it is ~cceflary to lfay a little on the nature an'd phyfica1 caufe of this difl:emper.· :The French difl:emper is, according to· phyficians, a fpecies of cachexia, in which-' the lymph~ and particularly' the wheyii11 part of it, a!fumcs · a fin gular thicknefs ind acrimohy~ , The venereal poifon, .G1ys Afl:ruc . (o); . is .o, f at fait, ou rather acid fait, corrofive and fix:ed nature. It occ-afions •the. COJ'lden ... fation an& acrimohy of the lymph, arid from' tlienoe p oceed the in~ ammat.ions, warts, ulcers,. erofions, pains, and aU- the other horrid fymptoms known tO. phyficians. . ~ ' · This poifdn, when· cmnmunicated to ~ a found!m:lrl1, ought- not to ba confidered, fays this author, as a new humol:lr added to the natural humours, but rather as a mere dyfcrqfia; or vicious quality of the natural humours, which degenerating from their natural ftate, .are changed . into acid faits.' Almoft· all phyficians have been· perfuaded~ that' this evil cannot arife otherwife than by means of contagion communicated by the fcminal liquor, or by milk, or faliva, or fweat, or by contaCt with vcne.!. real ulcers, &c. But we prefume to maintain, that the French evil· Call pofitively be produced in man, W·ithout any contagion Or commu.:.· nication with· thofe infeCted; becaufe it can abfolutely be generated in · the f:1me manner as it was generated· in the fidl: perfon .who fnffered it; fuch perfon could not get. it by contagion, becaufe he would not in. that cafe been th ... firft who fLllli red it, but from. another caufe very different ; therefore, by a fir:pllar caufc, whatever it ~as, fome I ' ( o) I b'.d . L'~I'I!J · 1..1 . cn_p. z. cachexia · .35'3 DJSSERT. IX. ~· .. |