186 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 34 



seems to be very rare, and among such of the Tarahumare as were 

 seen there was no instance of any degree of scrofula. There is no 

 rachitis. In the numerous Tarahumare skulls and other bones 

 examined the only pathological conditions, excepting a few injuries 

 were senile arthritis, a few cases of dental caries, some marks of 

 inflammatory or suppurative process about the alveoli, one small 

 osteoma on the dorsal surface of the frontal bone, and one abscess 

 in the superior maxilla. Among the less recent bones, as among 

 similar osteological remains of the Indians of other tribes in the 

 Southwest and northern Mexico, there was not a single suggestion of 

 rickets, syphilis, tuberculosis, or cancer. 



Among the southern Tepehuane during the dry season ordinarily 

 there is but little sickness. The most frequent disorders, besides 

 digestive troubles, are headache, muscular rheumatic pains, calenturas 

 (malarias), and acute chest diseases. Epidemics are rare. 



Among the Tepecano, in Jalisco, the most frequent causes of death 

 among the adults are ''fever" (in all probability severe malaria or 

 typhoid), calentura (mostly less severe malaria), dysentery, and "a 

 chest disease of brief duration, accompanied with pain and fever" 

 (probably pneumonia). The mortality of children is large, being due 

 chiefly to intestinal disorders. Calentura is also said by the people to 

 be not infrequently fatal among children. Smallpox has appeared 

 occasionally, causing numerous deaths. A certain percentage of 

 women die as the result of accidents or from diseases while pregnant, 

 during labor, or in the puerperium. The most common minor affec- 

 tions are pains in the muscles, back, or joints, headaches, some 

 vertigo (the last-named mainly the effect of drinking to excess, which, 

 however, is not frequently done), and conjunctivitis. Tumors occur 

 infrequently ; of what nature they are could not be learned. Insanity 

 is very rare, and is believed to be incurable." 



The diseases which the Huichol are mostly subject to are calenturas, 

 gastro-intestinal disorders, dolores costales (pleurisy or pneumo- 

 nia), and muscular or lumbar rheumatic pains. The writer was told 

 of individuals who died of some acute affection ' ' of the head ' ' accom- 

 panied by severe vertigo. Dysentery occurs; it is very probably, in 

 some cases at least, of malarial origin. Most children who die suc- 

 cumb to diarrhea, most adults to diseases affecting the respiratory 

 organs, other than tuberculosis, which, although it occurs, is rare. 

 Among ten young to middle-aged men who were interrogated as to 

 the different sicknesses they passed through since their childhood, in 

 two the answer was none; in one, occasional headache, calentura, 

 some pains in the stomach; in one, smallpox, calentura, cough; in 

 one, some form of enteric fever, calentura; in one, stomach troubles 

 and occasionally vertigo; in one, smallpox, stomach trouble, and 



a See also The Religion of the" Chichimecs," etc., American Anthropologi .ft . n.s., v, no. 3, July-Sept.. 

 1903, 385. 



