go A VOYAGE TO Book VII. 



a much larger quantity, and confequently muft be 

 attended with more pov/erfiii efFedls. 



Tpiough the fummer here, as we have already 

 obferved, is confiderably warm, yet is it not pro- 

 jdudl:ive of venomous creatures, which in this coun- 

 try are not known; and the fame may be faid of 

 all Valles, though there are feme parts, as Tumbez 

 and Piura, where the heat is nearly equal to that at 

 Guayaquil. This fingularity can therefore proceed 

 from no other caufe than the natural drought of the 

 .climate. 



The diilempers moil common at Lima are ma- 

 lignant, intermittent and catarrhous fevers, pleurifies, 

 and conftipations ; and thcfe rage contmualiy in the 

 •city. The fmall-pox is alfo known here as at Quito, 

 hut is not annual ; though whei^ it prevails, great 

 numbers are fwept away by it. 



Convulsions are likewife very common and no 

 lefs fatal. This diforder though unknov/n at Qiiito, 

 is frequent all over Valles, but more dangerous in 

 fome parts than in others. Something has already 

 been laid of this diftemper in our account of Car- 

 thagena, but a more circumftantiai defcription of it 

 v/as reierved for this place. 



This diftcmper is divided into two kinds, the 

 common or partial, and the malignant or arched 

 ronvuiiions. They both come on vv^hen nature is 

 ilruggii.ng in the crifis of fome acute diftemper; but 

 with this important difference, that thole attacked 

 with the former, often recover, though the greater 

 part die on the third or fourth day, the term of its 

 duration ; while thofe who have the misfortune of 

 being attacked by the latter, fmk under it in two or 

 three days, it being very extraordinary to recover, 

 and is therefore termed malignant. 



The fpafms or convulfions confifl in a total in- 

 ^clivicy of the mufcles, and a conftridion of the 

 •|]erves of the whole body, beginning with |:hofe of 



the 



