HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



423 



Ira the firft place Dr. Aftruc fays (p) that the air 

 ought not to be numbered among the caufes, as al- 

 though it might occafion other diforders in the ifland of 

 Hifoaniola it could not caufe the venereal difeafe, be- 

 cause the Europeans who for two hundred years and up- 

 wards inhabited that iiland have not contracted that dis- 

 temper but by means of contagion ; and the air is not at 

 prefent different to what it was three hundred years 

 ago : and if it fliould be different at prefent, at lead it 

 was not fo in the beginning of the fifteenth century. 

 We ought, therefore, to make no conclufions from the 

 air in treating of the origin of this evil. Although Dr. 

 Aftruc excludes the air from the number of the caufes 

 of the French evil, he has recourfe to it in open contra- 

 diction to himfelf in another place. 



Two caufes alone are affigned by Dr. Aftruc ; thefe 

 are food and heat. As to food, he fays, that the inha- 

 bitants of Hifpaniola, when their maize, cafava, &c. 

 were fcarce, fed on frogs, worms, bats, and fuch like 

 fmall animals. With refpect to heat he affirms, that the 

 women of hot countries are much afflicted with acrid, 

 and as it were, virulent courfes, particularly if they eat 

 unwholefome food. On that fuppofition the author 

 fpeaks thus : " Multis ergo 8c graviffimis morbis indi- 

 " genas infula? Haiti affici olim debuerunt, ubi nemo a 

 " menftruatis mulieribus fe continebat : ubi viri libidine 

 " impotentes in venerem obviam belluarum ritu ageban- 



" tur: 



(J>) Videtur quidem e numero caufarum expungendus aer, qui in Hifpaniola 

 morbos alios fcrfan inferre potuit, at vero luem veneream minime. Utiquc 

 conftat. Europaeos, qui earn infulam jam a 200 annis , immo pene 300) incolunt 

 luem veneream ibidem nunquam contraxiffe nifi contagione. Europad tamen 

 aerem ibidem ducunt & eundem, quern olim ducebant indigent, & dubio pro- 

 cul eodem modo teniperatum & conftitutum. Aftruc De Morbis Venereis, lib. 



