90 A VOYAGE TO Book VIL 



a much larger quantity, and consequently must be 

 attended with more powerful eficcts. 



Though the summer here, as we have already 

 observed, is considerably warm, yet it is not produc- 

 tive of venomous creatures, which in this country 

 are not known ; and the same may be said of all 

 Valles, though there are some parts, as Tumbez 

 and Piura, where the heat is nearly equal to that at 

 Guayaquil. This singularity can therefore proceed 

 from no other cause than flie natural drought of the 

 ciimate. 



The distempers most common at Lima are malig- 

 imnt, intermittent, and catarrhous fevers, pleurisies, 

 and constipations ; and these rage continually in the 

 city. The small-pox is also known here as at Quito, 

 but is not annual ; though when it prevails, great 

 numbers arc swept avray by it. 



Convulsions are likewise very common and no less 

 fatal. This disorder, though unknown at Quito, is 

 frequent all over Valles, but more dangerous in some 

 parts than in others. Something has already been 

 said of this distemper in our account of Carthagena, 

 but a more circumstantial description of it vvas re- 

 served for this place. 



This distemper is divided into two kinds, the 

 common or partial, and the malignant or arched con- 

 vulsions. They both come on when nature is strug- 

 gling in the crisis of some acute distemper, but 

 with this important difi'erence ; that those attacked 

 with the former, often recover, though the greater 

 part die on the third or fourth day, the term of its 

 duration ; while those who have the misfortune of 

 being attacked by the latter, sink under it in two or 

 three days, it being very extraordinary to recover, 

 and is therefore ternud malignant. 



The spasms or convulsions consist in a total in- 

 activity of the muscles, and a constriction of the 

 nerves of the whole body, beginning with those of 

 S the 



