iiRDLicKA] PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MEDICAL OBSERVATIONS 185 



largeinent was unilateral (on the n^^ht side) and in five bilatei'al (all 

 larger on the right). The natives have no definite conception as 

 to the cause of this disease and no knowledge of how to cure it. It 

 has existed in the general region for a long time.'* All but one of 

 the goiters seen were of moderate size. No case of the disease was 

 observed among the men, but the writer was told it occurs in them 

 also, though much more rarely than in the women. Venereal dis- 

 eases are said to be quite common, but destructive syphilitic lesions 

 on the exposed parts of the body are rare. Rickets is unknown 

 among persons of pure blood. Pulmonary tuberculosis occurs, but 

 is not prevalent. It seems to attack the half-breeds oftener than 

 the full-bloods. Insanity and idiocy are said to be very infrequent. 

 In his many years of experience with the Opata, Doctor Alderman, 

 the American physician-miner at Tuape, knew but one insane person 

 (a man with a delusion that he owned everything) and but a single 

 feeble-minded individual. No information could be obtained about 

 children born blind or deaf. The only cases of serious nervous 

 disease learned of were one of paralysis agitans in a woman addicted 

 to the use of liquor, and one of long-present choreic movements in a 

 male subject.'' 



The Yaqui seem to be remarkably healthy, as they are a sturdy 

 people. Along the valleys, particularly during the midsummer 

 raiiiy season, there occur among them, as among the Mayo, numer- 

 ous calenturas or "fevers," probably of malarial nature. No 

 goiter or deformity was seen in the tribe, and, as among the rest 

 of the Mexican tribes visited , tuberculosis is infrefjuent. 



Owing partly to the unheal thful lowlands in which many of them 

 live a portion of the year and partly to the irregularity of their 

 lives, with the too frequent use of tesvino, the Tarahumare are 

 subject to numerous disorders. The most common of these are 

 affections of the digestive organs, and the next in frequency are the 

 frios or calenturas (various forms of malaria). An affliction much 

 spoken of and often fatal is dolores costales (the term probably in- 

 cluding both pleurisy and pneumonia). Contagious diseases, par- 

 ticularly variola, visit the people occasionally and are much feared. 

 Venereal diseases are occasionally introduced, but the people guard 

 against them. Insanity is very rare, but cases of temporary mental 

 aberration following drink are well know^n. Deaf ami duml) indi- 

 viduals occur in the tribe, but it was not possible to learn whether 

 the condition was congenital or acquired. Blindness is more fre- 

 quent and is mostly the result of smallpox or injury. Consumption 



« " The [water of the] Oposura is supposed to be productive of the tumour in the neck, called in 

 Switzerland the goitre. The Saguaripa, and many other streams in Soiiora are thought to produce 

 similar effects. " Hardy, Travels In the Interior of Mexico in 1825, 1826, 1827, & 1828, 44.3, 1829. " The 

 Opatas of Oposura are disfigured by goiter, but this disease seems to be confined within 3 leagues of 

 the town. " Bancroft, Native races, i, 588. 



b See Notes on the Indians of Sonora, Mexico, A merimn A nthropologist. n. s., vi, no. 1, Jan. -Mar., 1904. 



