GUATEMALA AND THE HIGHEST NATIVE AMERICAN CIVILIZATION. 221 



and sand-fly fever, filariasis, tropical skin diseases, and other maladies, * * * True, we have 

 many maladies in Europe, but in order to compare the two sets of diseases we should compare the 

 death-rates. Whereas in England it is a long way below 20 per 1,000 per annum, throughout 

 the tropics it is nearer 40 per 1,000. In India alone malaria kills over 1,000,000 persons a year, 

 and dysentery and malaria kill many hundreds of thousands. I have seen places in which the 

 ordinary death-rate remains at between 50 and 60 per 1,000; others which were so unhealthy that 

 they were being deserted by their inhabitants; and others, lastly, which were simply uninhabitable. 

 What would people say if such a state of things were to exist in most villages in England, Scotland, 

 and Ireland?"* 



On the whole, it seems safe to say that in tropical countries the density of population 

 and the stage of culture depend to a large extent upon the amount and kind of fevers; yet 

 fevers are far from being the whole story. Few who have ever been in the torrid zone will 

 deny that under prolonged and unvarying conditions of heat and dampness both physical 

 and mental energy decline. One is tempted to sit down idly and rest and enjoy the warm 

 air. When it is time for a new piece of work one tends to hesitate and to be uncertain as to 

 just how to begin. Of course there are exceptions, and of course a long inheritance of 

 activity in cooler regions will for years largely overcome these tendencies. Nevertheless, 

 of the scores of northerners, both American and Europeans, whom I have questioned in 

 the torrid zone there was scarcely one who did not say that he worked less than at home. 

 At first a considerable number said that they had as much energy as at home, but then they 

 added that it was not necessary to work so hard, and moreover that they did not feel like 

 it. Much more striking was the absolute unanimity with which they said that when they 

 experienced a change of climate, especially if they went from lowlands to highlands, or 

 still more when they returned to the north, they at once felt an access of energy which 

 lasted some time after their return. To a New Englander accustomed to look upon our 

 Southern States as having a warm, debilitating climate, it is interesting to hear people in 

 Guatemala speak of being stimulated as soon as they feel the cool winter air of New Orleans. 

 The natives of the torrid zone are of course so accustomed to the heat that they enjoy it and 

 suffer from even a slight degree of cold, but the very fact of being accustomed to the heat 

 seems to carry with it the necessity of working and thinking slowly. The universality with 

 which this is recognized in Central America is significant. Again and again, when one 

 asks about labor conditions in specific places, one is told, "Oh, yes, the people there are all 

 right, but you know it's always hot down there and they don't work much." All this, 

 I know, is perfectly familiar, but it deserves emphasis because the great ruins are practically 

 all in the hot country where "they don't work much." 



In addition to debilitating fevers and an enervating uniformity of warm, moist atmos- 

 pheric conditions, tropical countries suffer from peculiar agricultural conditions. As we 

 have already seen, in the great forest, where rain falls at all seasons, the making of clearings 

 is practically impossible. In the dense jungle, such as that at an elevation of 1,000 to 2,000 

 feet in the Pacific coffee belt of Guatemala, this is usually but not always possible. It 

 depends on the length and character of the dry season in February, March, and April. 

 Between two and three weeks of steady sunshine are said to suffice to prepare the cut 

 bushes and smaller branches of the trees for burning, but sometimes there is scarcely a 

 rainless week during the whole year. This happened in 1913. People who chanced to 

 do their cutting early burned their fields and were able to plant a corn crop, but many 

 cut too late and failed. It is easy to say that everyone ought to cut and burn early, but 

 in the first place the lethargy of the torrid zone leads people to put things off till the last 

 moment. In the second place, if the land is burned over too early, weeds and bushes will 

 sprout and grow to a height of a foot or two before it is time to plant the corn. Hence a 

 second clearing will be necessary, and if a second burning is impossible the corn will be at a 

 disadvantage. 



* United Empire, February 1913, pp. 123-124. Sir Ronald Ross: Medical Science and the Tropics. 



