SANTIAGO. 207 



prim 'Spiil causes of mortality, was read before the faculty of medical science, and published in 

 tin- " Anale* de la Univer.^<i"<l in August, 1850. After Kpeuking at length on the count it u- 

 tiuns of the present generation, the author goes on to say : 



" Looking round tin- \\hole lion/on, we do not find a single spot that casts the germ* of 

 epidemic mia.Miia towards uur hlnesky; nor can we find on the soil any of the venomou* reptiles 

 infesting other countries, and in whose presence their people are stupefied. Yet, in the midnt 

 of this bountiful land we perceive death cutting down tin- tender plants of the generation, and 

 striking off the young branches of the genealogical tree, whose sap vivifies the trunk, leaving 

 only the dried limlis in \\ho.se veins flow the poisons that afHict society. In my view these 

 poisons are, first, syphilis ; second, immorality ; third, improper rearing ; and fourth, want. 

 These combined are the causes operating to produce the evils spoken of. 



" Syphilis, or venereal disease. This is the prime mover of the revolution effected in the 

 human species the infernal contagion transmitted to our generation. I will not stop to show 

 how this mortal poison penetrates all the tissues of the body, how it combines with the fluids, 

 nor how it is communicated from parent to child. It is only necessary for me to prove that it 

 engenders scrofula, and that such a constitution is a misfortune for the individual as well as 

 society. * * * That the mortality of the country is due to it I cannot doubt, after seeing 

 the innumerable children who have been brought to the charity hospital suffering with 

 scrofulous syphilis. 



" It is not difficult to estimate the character of people who possess lymphatic temperaments. 

 Their natural or acquired debility makes them reserved in thought, unstable in determinations, 

 inconstant in affection in a word, they are passive from timidity, and tolerant for want of 

 energy. Our generation is moving in this direction, towards that condition when good and 

 evil are alike matters of indifference ; old age, the picture of this temperament, is an irrefra- 

 gable proof of this indolence. But having already gone over one half the fatal journey in 

 which generations lose in stability in proportion as they advance, they must be treated more 

 leniently, more especially the delinquent condemned to suffer without pity. His incipient 

 timidity cannot withstand the rigorous chastisement applied to him, and he prefers dying 

 rather than submit to the absolute privation of vital elements light and heat. I speak 

 now of the penitentiary of the capital, where most of the prisoners live unoccupied, sleep in 

 wet and narrow dungeons, and rapidly hasten death by the inhalation of an atmosphere in- 

 sufficient for respiration. The greater portion of those who come from the penitentiary to the 

 hospital die from the effects of this treatment. The Chileno is too docile to be subjected to 

 such harsh trials trials that result in augmenting a depravity whose origin was physical want, 

 and which terminates by confirming its moral necessity. Occupation in forced labor would be 

 the best punishment to correct the misled heart, and strengthen bodies enervated by vice. * * 



11 Negligence, or mismanagement, is the third predisposing cause of mortality, or rather it 

 is the efficient one. The period of lactation is the most dangerous in childhood, because of the 

 practice of mothers to render the food given more palatable, and thus digestive organs not yet 

 perfected are unable to elaborate it. But it commonly occurs that necessity rather than choice 

 compels this evil, so many mothers having a scarcity of milk. Nevertheless, this mal-practice 

 is very general, even among the better classes of society, and appears to have originated in the 

 vulgar belief that the child may break its gall if its inquietude is not acceded to. Experience, 

 which has so often shown the falsity of the popular prejudice, seems not to have been sufficient 

 to do away with it among parents. * 



"The fourth and last cause of mortality in Chile is want; not want resulting from actual 

 deficiency of food it being admitted that no one dies of hunger here but from despair 

 produced by idleness. Elsewhere I have said inactivity is the germ of all vice, and I now repeat 

 it to sustain that want does not operate so powerfully on the authors as on their offspring, 

 whom it would be greatly better to place in the hands of some charitable person than to leave 

 in the power of parents whose examples only encourage immorality. Whilst the head of the 



