124 



ORDER BIMANA — GENUS HOMO. 



by the peculiar conditions of the climate and the races of men. The 

 plngue appears to be endeiiiical in Egypt ; it ceases at the period of the 

 greatest iieat, when the Nile rises, and the Northern or Etesian winds 

 blow. When, however, the winds blow from the deserts, during the fifty 

 davs following Easter, they raise whirlwinds of a hot and fine sand, which 

 occasion frequent ophthalmias. In Cairn, tliere are an immense number 

 of blind individuals, and at least one half of the inhabitants are afllicted 

 with diseases of the eye. Wliile the plague prevails, other diseases cease, 

 and particularly intermittent fevers. Diseases of the skin are very com- 

 mon in this country. 



Mungo Park found numerous goitres and frequent swellings of the sub- 

 maxillary glands, in different regions of Bambarra, along the river Niger. 

 In the island of St Thomas, the inhabitants are affected with a species of 

 elephantiasis, to such a degree, that I^ufFon mistook them for a new va- 

 riety of the human species. Tliere is a dry and burning wind, called Hnr- 

 matian, blowing from the north-east, which traverses the Sahara, loaded 

 with a reddish vapour, or rather a fine and hot sand, which dries up the 

 vegetation, chops the lips, occasions ophthalmias, but at the same time 

 produces very salutary effects upon the system, so that, when it arrives 

 at the marshy districts of Africa, it immediately drives off fevers, dropsj', 

 and other diseases. 



Some disorders are confined to the Negro race. The yaws, a disease 

 in which elevated red blotches appear upon the skin, are so peculiar to 

 this race, that they do not attack the Europeans in the colonies of Ame- 

 rica, although apparently under the same circumstances. The inhabitants 

 of tlie African deserts, who feed upon locusts, are subject, according to 

 Drake, to the morbus pediadosiis, of which disease numbers die before the 

 age of forty. The western coasts of Africa are more unhealthy than the 

 eastern, from the trade-winds blowing from the east, and becoming heated 

 as they traverse tlie continent. 



The extensive hemisphere of America comprises a vast number of dif- 

 ferent climates, and is liable to an immense number of endemical affec- 

 tions. At its northern extremit}', such as L.ibrador and Hudson's Bay, 

 and on the western coasts at Nootka Sound, few diseases are to be found 

 except such as arise from the excessive cold. The descendants of the 

 French and English, who have settled in Canada, have acquired the same 

 hardy constitution as the Swedes. 



Intermittent fevers prevail greatly in the United States, from tlie 

 marshy nature of the country. The frequent changes, as well as the 

 humidity of the atmosphere, occasion catarrhal affections, inflammations 

 of the pleura and kings, with phthisis. Connecticut is more healthy. 

 Louisiana is much subject to spasmodic affections and opisthotonos, a 

 form of tetanus. 



Mexico, and indeed all equinoxial America, is moister, and covered 

 more densely with forests than Africa. It is chiefly towards Vera Cruz, 

 and its fatal coasts, that the yellow fever has long been known. Accord- 

 ing to M. Humboldt, the ancient Mexicans, or Toltecs, had experienced 

 this malady before tlie arrival of the Spaniards. It has spread rapidly 

 throughout all the Spanish colonies and elsewhere, as at New York, St 

 Domingo, Porto-Bello, where it bears the name of the black vomit, or 

 vomitu pricto. This fatal disease is chiefly endemical on the marshy banks 

 of rivers, and towards the end of autumn. It principally attacks Euro- 

 peans, and seems to spare the Negroes. Some ports of Spain and Italy 

 are not exempt from this malady. Dropsy is very common on the coast 

 of Mexico. In all these warm climates, tetanic affections very frequently 

 follow ordinary wounds, causing sudden death, which has often been 

 erroneously ascribed to the poison of the woorara and upas. 



During the rainy seasons in Jamaica, acute fevers and colics are the 

 most common maladies, followed by paralysis. Many African maladies 

 prevail here, especially among the Negroes, with whom they are imported. 

 Most Europeans, on passing under the Tropics, experience a kind of 

 feverish delirium called calenture, the effect of the heat, and which goes 

 off by voiniting. On arriving at the colonies, they fall into a state of ex- 

 treme debility and languor. Afterwards, the abuse of strong liquors, 

 fruit, and other habits unsuited to the climate, occasion them to become 

 afflicted with dysenteries, diarrhoeas, and boils. The Brazilians are ex- 

 posed to frequent ulcerations of the feet, called bichos, produced by a 

 species oiV]ei\{Pulcx pe7ietrans, Linn.), wliich penetrates into the flesh. 

 A red Insect {Ixodes nigwi. Lair.) occurring in the Savannahs of Mar- 

 tinique, occasions much inconvenience to the Negroes. 



Most writers consider Syphilis as imported from the New Continent, 

 and it cannot be denied that it was found in Peru ; but the warm cli- 

 mate and the vegetable diet of the inhabitants render it less dangerous than 

 in our own climate. In some of the South Sei Islands, this disease, in- 

 troduced by Europeans, cures itself without medical treatment. The 

 elevated plateaux of the Andes are very healthy, and contain many cen- 

 tenaries. 



Tiie influence of the various occupations of civilized life upon the hu- 

 man frame is a subject of equal interest with that of the prevalence of 

 diseases in particular localities. Under this head we may include seden- 



tary habits ; want of ventilation ; insufl[icient exercise of particular parts 

 of the body ; exposure to cold ; over-exertion ; the excessive use of parti- 

 cular parts; unnatural or constrained positions; exposure to heat, moisture 

 and the noxious fumes or minute particles of animal, vegetable, or mineral 

 substances. 



Sedentary habits, when continued for a long time, and without those 

 occasional relaxations necessary to the health of the system, are certain to 

 shorten life. Persons of these habits soon become afflicted with stomach 

 complaints, and various organic diseases, in many cases arising from the 

 pressure on the sternum and lower part of the stomach. Want of exercise 

 is peculiarly fatal to the young, among whom it is as necessary as food to 

 the development of the several structures of the body. The effect of 

 confinement is strikingly observable on comparing the crowded inhabitants 

 of a manufacturing town with a body of active agriculturists. It not only 

 stunts the growth but produces deformit)-, and depresses the mental 

 powers. Mr Owen states that, in his factory at New Lanark, the chil- 

 dren were frequen ly deformed in their limbs, their growth was stunted, 

 and they were incapable of making any progress in the first rudiments of 

 education. The evil effects of confinement are greatly increased by ex- 

 cesses of any kind, such as too much food, or the use of ardent s|iirits. 

 On the other hand, too limited a supply of food is almost equally pre- 

 judicial. Literary men in general suffer in an especial manner from the 

 want of bodily exercise, on account of the disproportionate manner in 

 which their mental powers are over-strained. In various classes of artizans, 

 such as tailors, weavers, jewellers, engravers, and watchmakers, the effects, 

 of long confinement are especially observable, and in the several classes 

 of writing-clerks. Tailors are particularly subject to curvatures of the 

 spine, to inflammations of the stomach, bowels, and liver. In all the in- 

 stances just enumerated, the muscular and nervous systems acquire an 

 unnatural degree of subserviency to the lymphatic system. 



Want of ventilation is especially prejudicial in factories, where children 

 and adults are congregated together in vast numbers and in over-heated 

 apartments. The air becomes tainted with an excess of carbonic acid 

 and animal effluvia, while oxygen is supplied in quantities too small to, 

 purify the blood during respiration. When the rooms are not heated in, 

 the usual manner by a common fire-place, but by pipes of warm air or by 

 steam, the ill effects of a want of ventilation become greatly increased. 



Exposure to cold is one chief cause of many diseases. Indeed, it may 

 almost he said, that one-lnilf of the deaths and two-thirds of the diseases 

 that occur among the children of the poor, are more or less caused by 

 cold. Numbers fall victims, during the winter and spring, to their want 

 of sufficient clothing. A brief or moderate exposure to cold, during per- 

 fect health, acts as a useful stimulus to the vital action ; but a very in- 

 tense or long continued abstraction of heat acts as a direct impediment to 

 its exertion. 



Exposure to heat is chiefly injurious from the subsequent transition to 

 cold. The perspiration is suddenly checked, and the consequences often 

 become fatal. Rheumatism, asthma, catarrhs, and inflammation of the 

 lungs, are the results of sudden exposure to cold, without the precaution 

 of warm clothing. Bakers, brewer.=, sugar-refiners, forgers, and glass- 

 blowers, are particularly liable from their occupations to be affected with 

 these diseases. 



Moisture, in itself, does not appear to be positively injurious, except • 

 in so far as it lowers the temperature of the body by evaporation. Asj 

 the sea is usually warmer than the air during winter, it happens that, ,in: 

 cases of shipwreck at this season, an almost total immersion in the water 

 is less injurious than sitting, in wet clothes exposed to the cold air, and 

 the rapid reduction of temperature during the time they are drying. 

 Cullen records an instance of shipwreck, where the persons who lived 

 longest were almost totally immersed in salt water ; while the conse- 

 quences were fatal to tho^e who were exposed to the freezing influence 

 of the wind only, or to the wind, assisted by the evaporation from wet 

 clothes. Immersion for a long period in salt water is not so injurious as 

 in fresh, from the former being more stimulating. The use of spirituous 

 liquors during shipwreck increases the danger, as it raises the tempera- 

 ture of the body for a short time, only to render it more sensibly affected 

 by the subsequent cold. It is not unfrequently followed by apoplexy. 

 Inattention to change wet clothes, whether from rain or perspiration 

 merely after severe labour, is very injurious. This is the exciting cause 

 of most of the diseases found among fishermen, water-carriers, fullers, and 



wasnerwomen. 



The animal effluvia of candle-manufactories, slaughter-houses, and dis- 

 secting-rooms, are generally unhealthy, although no positive diseases can 

 be assigned to them. In most of these occupations, where persons are 

 much exposed to animal effluvia, there are certain causes serving to 

 counteract the ill effects that would otherwise follow. Tanners are pre- 

 served, by the tan and lime, from the injurious consequence of exposure 

 to animal matter and moisture. M. Patissier observes, that butchers and 

 catgut manufacturers are free from phthisis, while glue and size boilers 

 are comparatively healthy. 



