206 DISEASES PECULIAR TO MAN. 



effects of Impure air, sedentary habits, and unwholesome 

 employments — the excesses in diet, the luxurious food, 

 the heatinf^ drinks, the monstrous mixtures, and the per- 

 nicious seasonings, which stimulate and oppress the organs 

 — the unnatural activity of tlie great cerebral circulation, 

 excited by the double impulse of our luxurious habits and 

 undue mental exertions, of the violent passions which 

 agitate and exhaust us, the anxiety, chagrin, and vexation, 

 from which few entirely escape, and then re-acting on and 

 disturbing the whole frame — the delicacy and sensibility to 

 external influences, caused by our heated rooms, warm 

 clothing, inactivity, and other indulgences — are so many 

 fatal proofs that our most grievous ills are our own work, 

 and might be obviated by a more simple and uniform v/ay 

 of life. Our associates of the animal kingdom do not 

 escape the influence of such causes. The mountain shep- 

 herd and his dog are equally hardy ; and form an instruc- 

 tive contrast with a nervous and hysterical fine lady and her 

 lap-dog; — the extreme point of degeneracy and imbecility 

 of each race is susceptible. 



The observations of Humboldt confirm the position, 

 that individuals, whose bodies are strengthened by healthy 

 habits in respect to food, clothing, exercise, air, &c. are 

 enabled to resist the causes which produce disease in other 

 men. He paints to us the Indians of New Spain as a set 

 of peaceful cultivators, accustomed to uniform nourish- 

 ment, almost entirely of a vegetable nature, that of their 

 maize and cereal gramina. " They*" are hardly subject to 

 any deformity. I never saw a hunch-backed Indian ; and 

 it is extremely rare to see any who squint, or who are 

 lame in the arm or leg. In the countries where the inha- 

 bitants suffer from the goitre, this affection of the thyroid 

 gland is never observed among the Indians, and seldom 

 the Mestizoes f. 



He repeats the same testimony very strongly concerning 



* Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain ; v. p. i. i5'2. 

 + The offspring of an European and an American. 



