THE PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT OF MAN. 



123 



in, Buckwheat, or Black corn {Polygonum Fagopt/ntm), on wluch the poorer 

 ahabitants of Sologne, in the Orleanois, are almost wholly maintained, 

 ccasion pains in the joints and other diseases. In like maimer, the 

 lutinous dishes of polenta, macaroni, millet-broth, and new chestnuts, 

 roduce different glandular enlargements and other endemical maladies, 

 1 every place where the populace feed too exclusively upon these sub- 

 tances. The abuse of acid wines on the Rhine, and other districts of 

 rermany, as well as the constant use of cider, dispose towards gout and 

 olic. 



According to Forster and other observers, we can only attribute the 

 lou^hing ulcers found among the inhabitants of several Islands in the 

 outh Seas to the acrid drinks, which they prepare from the roots of a 

 jecies of Pepper. Several other diseases must be considered rather as 

 suiting from a particular kind of diet prevalent in one particular place, 

 lan from any other cause. Of this kind are the flabby and leucophleg- 

 latic condition of those nations which subsist chiefly on milk, but- 

 r, and clieese, as in Friesland, in the Alps, and all places where much 

 attle are maintained. The dysentery and diarrhoeas, so fatal in very 

 'arm or tropical climates, proceed rather from indigestible substances, 

 le abuse of fruits and spirituous liquors ; for we find that these diseases 

 an often be avoided by abstaining from the excesses which led to their 

 revalence. 



Hippocrates has long ago remarked, in his Treatise on Air, Water, and 

 oils, that the local circumstances of each territory predispose the human 

 onstitution to particular maladies, or relieve it from diseases of an op- 

 osite kind. At the present day, we find the dull inhabitants of the 

 anks of the Phasis equally subject to disorders of the lymphatic system 

 th the Sauromates of the Pains Mteotis ; we may contrast, with equal 

 istice, the mild and timid Asiatic with the robust and courageous Euro- 

 ean, or the corpulent inhabitant of a fertile valley, with the energetic 

 nd nervous mountaineer. We likewise find that in low and humid 

 rounds, where the air is stagnant, or exposed to the influence of warm 

 nd moist winds from the south and west, as in Holland, putrid and erup- 

 ve diseases become very prevalent. Broken-down constitutions are 

 ften affected by vertigo, deafness, catarrhal ophthalmias, difficulty of 

 reathing, coughs, lethargy, apoplexy, catarrhs, &c. 



On the other hand, in dry and northern exposures in elevated regions, 

 gitated by winds from the north and east, such as the upper Auvergne, 

 he Vivarais, or at Marseilles, Montpellier, or Grenoble, the inhabitants 

 re much exposed to inflammatory consumption, active ha?morrhages, a 

 trong disposition to acute maladies, to inflammations, pneumonia, rheu- 

 latism, and acute ophthalmias. Diseases of the chest are common 

 mong the inhabitants of cold and mountainous countries. 



The two characters of a locality just enumerated, give rise to endemical 

 ffections of an opposite kind. In low, moist, and tolerably warm 

 ilaces, the constant humidity habitually relaxes the frame. Diseases 

 lere assume a chronic character, with imperfect crises, and humoral 

 egenerations, inducing a precocious old age, among the most of the 

 nhabitants. Elevated regions, on the other hand, bring the body into a 

 tate of vigour and energy. 



From these endemical dispositions, it follows that strangers often remain 

 xempt from the diseases prevalent among tlie natives of a country, or, 

 m the contrary, the same circumstances, which have become, through 

 labit, essential to the health of the inhabitants of a district, occasion the 

 llness of a stranger. The water of the Seine often causes Diarrhoea to 

 pvery one, except the Parisians, who are accustomed to drink it. The 

 pretin of the Valois loses his stupid appearance in the arid and stimulat- 

 ing heights of the surrounding mountains, while the mountaineer is less 

 iffected with Hjemorrhages and acute affections by descending into the 

 ienser and moister air of the neighbouring valleys. 



Hence it follows, that maladies, like plants, do not disseminate them- 

 lelves equally in all regions. The miliary fever, frequent in Normandy, is 

 ilmost unknown in the other provinces of France. Aphtha, common in 

 Holland, are scarcely ever to be found in Vienne. The carbuncle, com- 

 jOion in the south of France, can scarcely be encountered in the north. 

 For analogous reasons, it may be said that the peculiar nature of each 

 country serves to modify the types of the several diseases of the human 

 race. A pleurisy, for example, will be different in intensity in a mountain- 

 ous locality and in deep valleys. On this account, however exact the 

 descriptions of diseases may be made by physicians, they always exhibit va- 

 rieties in different chmates, which have not been elsewhere remarked. 

 I The Laplanders, according to Schosffer and Linnseus, are subject to in- 

 jflammations of the head and lungs, and especially of the eyes, in conse- 

 quence of their being exposed to smoke and dust, as well as to the glare 

 of the sun upon the snow ; also to mortification of the extremities from 

 ithe cold. The frequent use of the milk of the Rein-deer and smoked 

 ;flesh often occasions pyrosis, and violent colics, followed by ptyalism. 

 They are also disposed to vermes, and are singularly hable to spasmodic 

 affections. They are never affected with plague, acute fever, or agues. 

 In Norway and Sweden, in some parts of Finland, of Russia and Den- 



mark, however, agues, paralysis, gout, dropsy, and rheumatism, are preva- 

 lent, according as the country is more or less moist or cold. But the 

 dryer and elevated regions of Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, are salubri- 

 ous, and the inhabitants attain a remarkable degree of longevity. 



The Muscovites, Cossacks, and Tartars of Kasan, inhabit more 

 healthy countries : with the exception of affections of the chest, caused 

 by cold, they experience few maladies, and have good appetites. Some- 

 times they experience a morbid hunger during severe frosts. Intermit- 

 tent fevers prevail on the banks of the Volga, the Don, and other larjie 

 rivers. 



We know that the peculiar affection of the hair, termed the Plica Polo- 

 nica, is endemic in Poland, Lithuania, Transylvania, and Silesia, and 

 sometimes is found in Alsace, Switzerland, and the Low Countries, it 

 is said to prevail more especially among Jews and Christians, of un- 

 cleanly and intemperate habits, but especially among the former. This 

 disease, according to many writers, was introduced originally from Tartary 

 in the Ukraine. It is often accompanied by a general affection of the 

 lymphatic system, and other diseases. Some instances are not wanting 

 among the uncleanly Fakirs of Hindoostan. 



In Hungary, the inhabitants are sometimes affected with pestilential 

 fevers, accompanied by purple or miliary eruptions. In Thrace, Mace- 

 donia, and Turkey in Europe, we find many acute fevers, affections of 

 the brain, and dysenteries. It is well known that the plague often pre- 

 vails in Constantinople, and extends its ravages among the Turks. From 

 the frequent use of the hot bath and opiates, their constitutions assume 

 less energy than those of Europeans in other climates. 



In Germany, purple and miliary fevers are very prevalent to%vards 

 Leipsic; in Misnia, these affections are frequently complicated with small- 

 pox and measles. 



We find a great number of endemical affections in Britain. Tubercu- 

 lous consumption and catarrh are very frequent maladies in this country. 

 The counties of Essex, Cambridge, and Lincolnshire, were once very 

 subject to intermittent fevers, owing to their marshes, though latterly 

 they have greatly diminished from the general drainage of these districts. 

 Common continued fever is very prevalent, especially towards autumn, 

 and in our large manufacturing districts, hooping-cough, measles, and scar- 

 latina, occur almost universally among children. 



In France, calculous disorders prevail in the Barrois and the wine 

 country, which some would attribute to the nature of the waters, but 

 are more probably owing to the wine. In the moist territory of Langue- 

 doc, children become subject to the disease called la snrrcHe, a kind of 

 locked-jaw, and «'i«ons, masclous, or sub-cutaneous vermes, found likewise 

 in the nortli of Europe. 



The Swiss are often troubled with nostalgia, or an excessive longing 

 for their native land, when in foreign countries. The districts of Vaud, 

 Faucigny, Maurienne, and especially the Valais, are subject to cretinism, 

 bronchocele, glandular swellings, accompanied by cachexia, drops}', and 

 idiocy. During the greatest heats of summer, the inhabitants of these deep 

 valleys are also afflicted with inflammations of the brain and coups-de-soleil. 



In Italy, diseases vary according to the localities. The maladies ende- 

 mical in marshy countries increase towards Mantua, the lagunes of Venice, 

 the marshes of Pisa, and especially during autumu, in the aria catliva of 

 the Pontine marshes, near Rome. Towards Naples, there are often to be 

 seen red spots upon the skin, being a kind of urticaria or nettle-rash. 

 The Greeks are often afflicted with ordinary leprosy, attended with alo- 

 pecia, or a falling away of the hair from the entire body. 



In the moist gorges of the mountains in the Asturias, there prevails a 

 peculiar scorbutic leprosy, called vial de la rosa, described by M. Thierry 

 in the Journal Medicale. 



The elevated plains ol Tartary in Central Asia maintain a great number 

 of wandering nations, whose disorders can scarcely be termed endemical, 

 ;is these people continually change their place of residence. Some Sibe- 

 rians are subject at birth to an occasional relaxation of the muscles of the 

 upper eye-lid, occasioning a temporary blindness, like the young of many 

 qnadrnpeds. Southern Asia exhibits most of the endemics peculiar to 

 tropical climates ; the hepatic and nervous systems become highly excited, 

 and lead to corresponding diseases. In Asia Minor, besides the plague 

 and many affections of the lymphatic system, such as leprosy and ele- 

 phantiasis, there prevail spasmodic affections, and especially the cholera 

 morbus, which is also frequent in Batavia. At Ceylon, ascites and tym 

 panites are very nrevalent, especially during the rainy season. Among all 

 these nations, the nervous system is excited by a kind of habitual irritation 

 from the heat, which gives rise to a corresponding debility in the mus- 

 cular system, and feebleness of the digestive organs, the vital energy being 

 determined towards the surface of the body. According to Dulialde, 

 there prevails a peculiar kind of erysipelas among those Chinese who 

 work in varnish, and the Asiatics generally are often afflicted with a 

 kind of eruptive disease or- pemphigus, from being exposed to the heat of 

 the sun. 



Many of the diseases found in Asia prevail also in Africa, but modified 



