1835.] HYDROPHOBIA. 



collecting fossil shells and wood. Great prostrate silicified 

 trunks of trees, embedded in u conglomerate, were extraordi- 

 narily numerous. I measured one, which was fifteen feet in 

 circumference : how surprising it is that every atom of the woody 

 matter in this great cylinder should have been removed and re- 

 placed by silex so perfectly, that each vessel and pore is pre- 

 served ! These trees flourished at about the period of our lower 

 chalk ; they all belonged to the fir-tribe. It was amusing to 

 hear the inhabitants discussing the nature of the fossil shells 

 which I collected, almost in the same terms as were used a cen- 

 tury ago in Europe, namely, whether or not they had been thus 

 " born by nature." My geological examination of the country 

 generally created a good deal of surprise amongst the Chilenos : 

 it was long before they could be convinced that I was not hunt- 

 ing for mines. This was sometimes troublesome : I found the 

 most ready way of explaining my employment, was to ask them 

 how it was that they themselves were not curious concerning 

 earthquakes and volcanos? why some springs were hot and 

 others cold? why there were mountains in Chile, and not a hill 

 in La Plata? These bare questions at once satisfied and silenced 

 the greater number ; some, however (like a few in England who 

 are a century behindhand), thought that all such inquiries were 

 useless and impious ; and that it was quite sufficient that God 

 had thus made the mountains. 



An order had recently been issued that all stray dogs should 

 be killed, and we saw many lying dead on the road. A great 

 number had lately gone mad, and several men had been bitten 

 and had died in consequence. On several occasions hydrophobia 

 has prevailed in this valley. It is remarkable thus to find so 

 strange and dreadful a disease, appearing time after time in the 

 same isolated spot. It has been remarked that certain villages 

 in England are in like manner much more subject to this visita- 

 tion than others. Dr. Unanue states that hydrophobia was first 

 known in South America in 1803: this statement is corro- 

 borated by Azara and Ulloa having never heard of it in their 

 time. Dr. Unanue says that it broke out in Central America, 

 and slowly travelled southward. It reached Arequipa in 1807 ; 

 and it is said that some men there, who had not been bitten, wero 

 affected, as were some negroes, who had eaten a bullock which 



