THE EUEOPEANS OF MEXICO. gi 



ricli finds rnay yet be expected to be brougJit to light from the old burial-places 

 in this region. 



The Spanish element amongst the Mestizo pojDulations of the Mexican plateaux 

 was drawn chiefly from Galicia, Asturia, and the Basque country, whereas the 

 settlers in the low-lying district of Vera Cruz were mostly Andalusians. Later 

 came the Catalonians ; but at no period did this tide of immigration assume any 

 considerable magnitude, and it was arrested altogetlier during the war of independ- 

 ence. A large proportion of the 80,000 Spaniards at that time living in the 

 country were driven into exile, and then took j^lace the opposite movement of a 

 return to the old country. Since the revolution a small stream of emigration has 

 again set towards Mexico, and especially towards the ujjlands ; amongst these 

 more recent arrivals are many natives of France and Italy, as well as of ÎS^orth 

 Europe, and several thousand English and German settlers now reside on the 

 elevated plateaux of the cold zone. 



It was long supposed, on the faith of Humboldt's statement, that in Anahuac 

 altitude compensated almost exactly for the more northern latitudes of Europe, 

 and that consequently the European could here be rapidly and permanently 

 acclimatised. " With the exception of a few seaports and some deep valleys," 

 wrote the great German naturalist, "New Si:)ain must be regarded as a highly 

 salubrious countr3\" Such it certainly is for the natives, who have become adapted 

 to their environment from time immemorial. But the comparative researches of 

 Jourdanet and other physiologists plainly show that northern and even southern 

 Europeans cannot settle with impunity on the higher tablelands, where the 

 barometric column stands normally at about 23 or 24 inches, consequently 

 where atmospheric pressure is one-fifth less than at sea-level ; hence the lungs 

 inhale in an hour about one ounce less of oxygen on these plateaux than on the 

 coastlands. The stranger residing on the uplands, where he supposes himself 

 to be acclimatised, runs more risk than the Indian, despite his greater attention to 

 hygienic precautions. He has especially to dread the dry season, that is to say, the 

 three months of March, April, and May, when the aqueous vapour is insufiicient to 

 stimulate the respirator}' functions. Children born of Europeans are usually frail 

 waifs, difficult to rear and nearly always overtaken by premature old age. Even 

 for the natives themselves the yearly increase of the population is far greater in 

 the temperate than in the cold zone. The immigrants are more threatened on 

 the plateaux than on the lower sloj^es ; those even who settle on the burning 

 plains of the seaboard are relatively better armed after overcoming the yellow 

 or marsh fevers, and thus become more acclimatised than their fellow-countrymen 

 on the elevated lands, where affections of the lungs, as well as dysentery and 

 typhoid fevers, are more prevalent. 



On the seaboard phthisis is common enough, and often assumes a highly acute 

 form, except in the swampy districts where, so to say, it is driven out by the 

 marsh fevers. Thus these two formidable disorders divide the coastlands between 

 them. Another terrible scourge on the shores of the Gulf and esj^ecially at Vera 

 Cruz is yellow fever, which, though less frequent in winter, occasionally prevails 



