QUraOGA: A MEXICAN MtnsriCIPIO — BRAND 



77 



The ranking among the contagious diseases 

 (other than those hsted previously) was as follows: 

 Smallpox, 413 cases; fevers, 195 (unspecified fever 

 154, typhus 30, typhoid 11) ; whooping cough, 112; 

 malaria, 51; measles, 47; diphtheria, 23; and 

 scarlet fever, 14. It will be noted that nearly 

 every year with more than an average number of 

 deaths (178.5) was a year in which smallpo.x and/or 

 fever was in first or second place among the 

 causes of death, as in 1873, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1883, 

 1884, 1898, 1899, and 1910. The 12- or 18-year 

 cycle for smallpox reported from the colonial 

 period shows up as a 10- or 15-year cycle (1873, 

 1883, 1898, ca. 1910) for peak years, with an 

 incidence of more than 4 cases every 4 years 

 (1873, 86 cases; 1877, 36 cases; 1878, 28 cases; 

 1882, 1883, 1884, with 13, 91, and 20 cases; 1898 

 and 1899, with 61 and 25 cases; 1905 and 1906, 

 with 7 and 18 cases; and 1910 with 21 cases). 

 Although many of the cases reported simply as 

 fever were undoubtedly of a variety of diseases, 

 probably the majority were typhoid, paratyphoid, 

 and typhus, but especially typhoid. From 1873 

 onward there were a few typhus cases hsted for 

 nearly every year, the most being 6 cases in 1884, 

 and 4 each in 1878 and 1879. However, State 

 records show that 1876-77, 1879-81, and 1893 

 were typhus years; and our records show the 

 greatest number of unidentified fever cases in 

 1876 (17 cases), 1877 (22), 1879 (45), and 1880 

 (28). The proportion of typhoid to typhus is 

 uncertain, but the term "typhoid" does not appear 

 in the records until the 1880's, and then the num- 

 ber in any 1 year does not go above 3. Un- 

 doubtedly there were many more cases of typhoid 

 than appear in the records. State and local 

 records stress 1879 and 1881 as typhoid years. 



A medical geography of Michoacan in 1884 lists 

 the most deadly diseases in Quiroga as "catarrhal 

 infections," smallpox, typhoid, and pneumonia. 

 Whooping cough and diphtheria were consistently 

 present, and whooping cough was at its worst in 

 1875-84 and 1906-07. Malaria (in various forms) 

 was present in practically every year, but the toll 

 was never liigher than 8 in 1879 and 5 each in 

 1874, 1907, and 1910. More than half of the 

 years had no deaths from measles, and only 1879 

 (19 cases), 1899 (9 cases), and 1910 (7 cases) 

 could be considered as measles years. We cannot 

 explain the apparent low incidence of scarlet 

 fever, especially since 12 of the 14 cases were 

 reported in 1910. 



The remaining chief causes of death were: 

 Violent death in all forms, 83 (knife wounds, 40; 

 falls and blows, IS; bullet wounds, 8; drowning, 

 7; lightning, 6; suicide by hanging, 2; and burns, 

 2); old age or decrepitude, 73; dropsy, 65; dolor de 

 costado or sideache (appendicitis in part), 45; liver 

 ailments, 40; and death in childbirth, 37. It is of 

 interest that 33 of the deaths from knifing occurred 

 in the first 11 years of our record. The records 

 of death from old age, dropsy, and sideache are 

 practically valueless as far as specific diseases are 

 concerned. We have not considered it worth 

 while to discuss the practically anonymous deaths 

 from pains, inflammation, attacks, headaches, and 

 the like. A scattering of deaths occm-red from 

 such causes as asthma, acute di'unkenness, afflic- 

 tions of the heart and of the nervous system, 

 venereal diseases, hemorrhages, apople.xy, hernia, 

 tumor, cancer, hydrophobia, epilepsy, erysipelas 

 or mal de San Antonio, gangrene, paralysis, 

 rheumatism, and Idzaro or leprosy. One person 

 died of leprosy about every 5 or 6 years. 



Table 15. — Chief causes of death from 19S7 to 1945, Quiroga 



' In 1940 and 1942 several diseases tied for fifth place, with 4 deaths each. 



