3 02 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the evil has long been recognized, and at present especially interests 

 the Government. But the difficulties in the way of applying an effica- 

 cious remedy are very great, and engineers are not fully agreed as to 

 the best method for attaining the desired result. " For such is the 

 nature of the plain upon which Mexico is built, such the conformation 

 of the land and the contour of the mountains about it, that a vast sys- 

 tem of tunneling and canalization would be necessary to create a fall 

 sufficient to drain the valley ; and, before the city can be drained, the 

 valley must be." It is said that one celebrated American engineer, 

 whose advice was recently asked by the Government, reported that, if 

 a thorough drainage could be effected, the city, through a consequent 

 shrinkage of soil, would probably tumble down. And, finally, the ex- 

 isting condition of the national and municipal finances is such, that it 

 is not easy for the authorities to determine how the money neces- 

 sary to meet the contingent great expenditures estimated at about 

 $9,000,000, or a sum equivalent to more than one third of the entire 

 annual revenue of the General Government is to be provided. 



It ought not to be inferred that there is special danger to travelers, 

 or tourists, visiting the Mexican capital, and residing there during the 

 winter months or early spring ; for experience shows that, with ordi- 

 nary precautions in respect to location, diet, exercise, and exposure, 

 health can be maintained there as easily as in most of the cities of 

 Italy at the same seasons. 



At Vera Cruz, the local name of which is " El Yomito " (a term 

 doubtless originating from the continued prevalence in the town of 

 yellow fever), the sanitary conditions are much worse than in the city 

 of Mexico ; and the causes of the evil, being mainly climatic, are prob- 

 ably not removable. The statistics of mortality at this place, gath- 

 ered and published by the United States Department of State, are 

 simply appalling. Thus, the population of Vera Cruz in 1869 was re- 

 turned at 13,492. The number of deaths occurring during the ten 

 years ending September, 1880, was 12,219. The average duration of 

 life in Vera Cruz for this period was, therefore, about eleven years ! 

 Other calculations indicate the average annual death-rate of this place 

 to be about ninety per thousand, as compared with the annual aver- 

 age for all the leading cities of the United States for the year 1880, 

 of 22*28 per thousand. 



The writer feels that he would be guilty of a grave omission, in 

 this connection, if he failed to quote and also to indorse the words 

 with which the United States consul, who gathered and communi- 

 cated these facts, thus concludes his official report, October, 1880 : 

 " With these awful facts before me, I leave it to the common judgment 

 and high ideas that our law-makers have of justice to say whether or 

 not the salary of the consul who, for eleven years, has lived in such 

 an atmosphere, ought or ought not to be placed at least back to where 

 it was when he was sent here." 



