SECT. II.] DISEASES. 125 



climatic diseases as other unacclimatized individuals. 1 The Black 

 and the White suffer equally from dysentery and intermittent 

 fevers in the south of the United States. A disease very simi- 

 lar to yellow fever (Matlazahuale) carries off a great number of 

 Indians in Mexico, whilst the Whites and the Creoles suffer 

 little from it ; 2 but also in this case we are rather inclined to 

 ascribe it to mode of life and other external circumstances, 

 than to a specific difference of races. That Negroes and 

 American Indians are not less subject to the most various 

 mental diseases than Europeans, is expressly pointed out by 

 Sigaud. 3 That savage nations, exclusive of destructive con- 

 tagious diseases, generally enjoy better health than civilized 

 nations, has been often asserted. Thus many of the old 

 travellers relate of the North American Indians, that they fre- 

 quently die only of old age, preserving the full use of their 

 senses, and exhibiting in the most advanced age no signs of 

 decay of the vital functions. This is also reported of the 

 Arabs in Africa. 4 The Congo-Negroes are, according to 

 Cavazzi, 5 more rarely sick than the Europeans. The Kaffirs 

 are described as the impersonation of health, 6 there being but 

 one species of putrid fever which causes great devastation 

 among them. 7 It is to the rarity of disease among savages 

 that we attribute the belief general among them, that maladies 

 are something supernatural or produced by magic. This 

 greater rarity, which however is not so easily proved, may 

 arise from the fact, that savages become by their mode of life 

 more hardened against external influences, and that they in- 

 stinctively adapt themselves to the natural conditions in which 

 they live, and hence enjoy physical health. The civilized man, 

 on the other hand, follows a great number of pursuits which 

 are not compatible with the preservation of health, and if 

 he remain healthy withal, it is because he economises his 

 strength. 



1 De Salles, p. 263. 



2 Foissac, p. 128. 



3 " Du Climat et des m. du Bresil," p. 347. 



4 M. Wagner, "E. in Algier," ii, p. 52, 1841. 



5 " Beschr. der Konigr. Congo, Mat. und Angola," p. 168, 1694. 



6 Kretzschmar, p. 188. 



" " Baseler Missions Mag.," iii, p. 72, 1852. 



