376 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



was vitiated. In reality, every year, at a determinate season, 

 epidemical fevers made their appearance, and readily degene- 

 rated into pains in the side, which were in most cases fatal. 

 The inhabitants of the distri6t attributed to the climate this 

 malign influence ; and in some parts the prejudice was so 

 strong, that it was usual to nam^e Tarma the country of ter- 

 tian fevers. 



Don Juan Maria de Gal ves, whose administration was so ho- 

 nourably distinguished by the re-population of the valley of Vi- 

 toc, a succin6l account of which has been given, undertook to 

 find the real cause of these calamities ; and this cause he re- 

 moved for ever. The talents of this worthy minister, and the 

 philosophy by which he is chara6terized, were the counsel- 

 lors, the physicians, and the remedies. The history is as 

 follows : 



In Tarma there is but one church ; the population is nume- 

 rous in proportion to the ground it occupies ; and all the in- 

 terments were made in the interior of the temple, according 

 to the custom which, having been, since the eighth century, 

 insensibly introduced into the whole of the christian world, has 

 been confounded with piety and devotion. It was very natural 

 to suppose, that the corruption of so many dead bodies, in a 

 space so circumscribed and so much frequented, would be fa- 

 tal to the health of those who resided in the vicinity : in this 

 case, however, prejudice operated still more powerfully than 

 reason. The diseases which originated from this abuse, and 

 even the deaths manifestly arising from the infe<!tion of the 

 air, did not suffice to remove the impression the inhabitants of 

 Tarma had received. The intendant, superior to the .tyranny 

 of opinion, formed the project of a burial-ground without- 

 side 



