467 



am not convinced, that the American typhus, 

 rendered endemic on the coast as the port be- 

 comes more frequented, if it be favoured by 

 particular dispositions of the climate, will not 

 become common in the valley : for the mean 

 temperature of Caraccas is considerable enough, 

 to allow the thermometer in the hottest months 

 to keep between twenty-two and twenty-six de- 

 grees*. If there be no doubt that the typhus 

 in the temperate zone is communicated by con- 

 tact, can we be certain, that in a high degree 

 of exacerbation, it would not be equally conta- 

 gious by contact under the torrid zone, in places 

 where, within four leagues of the coast, the 

 predisposition of the organs is favoured by the 

 temperature of summer ? The situation of 

 Xalapa, on the declivity of the Mexican moun- 

 tains, promises more security, because this town, 

 less populous, is five times farther distant 

 from the sea than Caraccas, and two hundred 

 and thirty toises higher ; and it's mean tem- 

 perature is three degrees cooler. In 1696, a 

 bishop of Venezuela, Diego de Banos, dedicat- 

 ed a church (ermita) to Santa Rosalia of Pa- 

 lermo, for having delivered the capital from the 

 scourge of the black vomit (vomito negro) 

 after it's ravages had lasted sixteen months. A 



* Between 17° and 20*8° R. 



t Ovidc y Banos, p, 269. 



2 H 2 



