92 



MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES. 



at all seasons. It would almost seem as if this malady was unknown before the 

 arrival of the Europeans in the country ; at least, medical men have failed to 

 identify it with any of the other contagious epidemics mentioned in the history 

 of Mexico. The first certain indication of its presence occurs so recently as the 

 middle of the seventeenth century in connection with some extensive earthworks 

 causing a disturbance of the soil. Its range is liuiited to about 3,;300 feet on the 

 eastern slope of the plateau, and cases are very rare above 2,500 feet. But the 

 o-erms of the disease contracted on the coast may be developed on the uplands a few 

 days after the arrival of the patient, and then it assumes a very dangerous form, 

 frequently ending fatally. On the Pacific side the ports of Acapulco, San Bias, and 

 Tehuantepec enjoy immunity from yellow fever, which, however, is replaced by a 



i'ig. 36.— rEiiVAiLiNG Diseases in Mexico. 

 Scale 1 : 24,OOU,000. 



Cold Zone. 



Altitude of 2,300 feet, limit of Yellow Fever. 

 620 Miles. 



bilious fever, whose attacks are rarely dreaded by the indigenous populations. The 

 vitiated taste which often develops a craving for earth, especially amongst the 

 women, is common in South Mexico. Even on the plateaux little pastilles of a 

 perfumed earth are exposed for sale at the markets, and never lack purchasers. 



Mexico is also noted for certain ailments which have been observed in no other 

 part of the world. On the Atlantic slope, and especially at Orizaba, a serious 

 affection occurs caused by the moyoquil, a species of insect whose larva, deposited 

 under the skin, burrows into the flesh, where it raises a tumour as large as a hen's 

 e^^. It is cured by the application of a turpentine plaister, by which the sore is 

 suppurated and the germ drawn out. Much more frequent is the so-called pinto 

 malady, which affects whole populations, especially in the states of Guerrero and 

 Oaxaca. This is a cutaneous affection which destroys the uniform colour of the 



