302 



KPIDEMIC DISEASES. 



Native 

 remedy. 



CHAP.xxiv. Mexico are the small-pox ; a disease called by the 

 uue^ Indians matlazahuatl ; and famine. The first of these, 

 whieh was introduced in 1520, seems to exert its power 

 at periods of 17 or 18 years. In 1763, and in 1779, it 

 committed dreadful ravages, having carried off during 

 the latter, in the capital alone, more than 9000 persons. 

 In 1797 it was less destructive, chiefly in consequence 

 of the zeal with which inoculation was propagated ; be- 

 tween 60,000 and 60,000 individuals having undergone 

 the operation. The vaccine method was introduced in 

 various parts of Mexico and South America at the com- 

 mencement of the present century. Humboldt mentions 

 a curious circumstance, tending to show that the discov- 

 ery of our celebrated countryman, Dr Jenner, had long 

 been known to the country people among the Andes of 

 Peru. A negro slave, who had been inoculated for the 

 small-pox showed no symptom of the disease, and when 

 the practitioners were about to repeat the operation, told 

 them he was cei'tain that he should never ta^ce it ; for, 

 when milking cows in the mountains, he had been 

 affected with cutaneous eruptions, caused, as the herds- 

 men said, by the contact of pustules sometimes found 

 on the udders. 



The frightful distemper called matlazahuatl, which is 

 peculiar to the Indian race, seldom appears more than 

 once in a century. It bears some resemblance to the 

 yellow fever or black vomiting, M'hich, however, very 

 seldom attacks the natives. The extent of its ravages is 

 not known with any degree of certainty, and it has not 

 yet been sulimitted to medical investigation. Torque- 

 dama asserts tliat in 1546 it destroyed 800,000, and 

 2,000,000 in 1576 ;-but these estimates are considered 

 by Humboldt as greatly exaggerated. 



A third o})stacle to the progress of population in New 

 Spain is famine. The American Indians, naturally In- 

 dolent, contented with the smallest quantity of food on 

 which life can be supported, and living in a fine climate, 

 merely cultivate as much maize, potatoes, or wheat, as 

 is necessary for their own maintenance, or at most for 



Indian 

 distemper. 



Ftaiiiic. 



