94 The Andes ai^d the Amazon. 



are often seen with a handkerchief about the jaws, or bits 

 of plaster on the temples; these are afflicted with head- 

 ache or toothachej resulting from a gratified passion for 

 sweetmeats, common to all ages and classes. Digestive 

 disorders are somewhat frequent (contrary to the theory in 

 Europe), but they spring from improper food and seden- 

 tary habits. The cuisine of the country does not tempt 

 the stomach to repletion, and the climate is decidedly pep- 

 tic. So the typhoid fever of Quito is due to filth, poor diet, 

 and want of ventilation. Corpulency, especially among 

 the men, is astonishingly rare. 



According to Dr. Lombard, mountain districts favor the 

 development of diseases of the heart ; and contagious dis- 

 eases are not arrested by the atmosphere of lofty regions. 

 This is true in Quito. But while nervous diseases are rare 

 in the inhabited highlands of Europe, in Quito they are 

 common. Sleep is said to be more tranquil and refresh- 

 ing, and the circulation more regular at high altitudes ; but 

 our experience does not sustain this. Goitre is quite com- 

 mon among the mountains. It is a sign of constitutional 

 weakness, for the children of goitred parents are usually 

 deaf and dumb, and the succeeding generation idiots. 

 Boussingault thinks it is owing to the lack of atmospheric 

 air in the water ; but why is it nearly confined to the wom- 

 en? In the southern provinces about Cuenca, cutaneous 

 affections are quite frequent. In the highlands generally, 

 scrofulous diseases are more common than in the plains. 

 There are three hospitals for lepers ; one at Cuenca with 

 two hundred patients, one at Quito with one hundred and 

 twelve patients, and one at Ambato. Near Riobamba is a 

 community of dwarfs. 



D'Orbigny made a post-mortein examination of some 

 Indians from the highest regions, and found the lungs of 

 extraordinary dimensions, the cells larger and more in num- 



