28o A VOYAGE TO Book VI 



very common in that climate, and confequently at the 

 firft attack all means ftiould be ufed to prevent its 

 progrefs. Perfons who labour under a flux are moft 

 liable to that malady ; but the inhabitants of this 

 country being firmly perfuaded that there can be no 

 diftemper that is not accompanied with the vieho, the 

 cure is never delayed. The operation muft be a:t- 

 tended with no fmall pain, as a pefTary, compofed of 

 gun-powder, guiney-pepper, and a lemon peeled, is 

 infinuated into the anus, and changed two or three 

 times a day, till the patient is judged to be out of 

 danger. 



The venereal difeafe is here fo common, that few 

 perfons are free from it, though its effe6ls are much 

 more violent in fome than in others ; and many are 

 afili6led with it, without any of its external fymptoms. 

 Even little children, incapable by their age of having 

 contraded it actively, have been known to be attacked 

 in the fame manner by it as perfons who have ac- 

 quired it by their debauchery. Accordingly there is 

 no reafon for caution in concealing this diftemper, its 

 commonnefs effacing the difgrace that in other coun- 

 V tries attends it. The principal caufe of its prevalence 

 is, negligence in the cure. For the climate favours^ 

 the operations of the medicines, and the natural tem- 

 perature of the air checks the malignity of the virus 

 more than in other countries. And hence few are 

 falivated for it, or will undergo the trouble of a radi- 

 cal cure. This difeafe muft naturally be thought in 

 fome meafure to ftiorten their lives •, though it is not 

 uncommon to fee perfons live feventy years, or more, 

 without ever having been entirely free from that dif- 

 temper, either hereditary, or contraded in their early 

 youth. 



During the continuance of the north and north-eaft 

 > winds^ which are the coldeft from pafling over the 

 frofty deferts, the inhabitants are afflidted with very 

 painful catarrhs, called pcchugueras. The air is then 



fom^-? 



