124 
ORDER BIMAN A — GENUS HOMO. 
by the peculiar conditions of the climate and the races of men. The 
plague appears to be cndeniical in Egypt; it ceases at the period of the 
greatest heat, when the Nile rises, and the Northern or Etesian winds 
blow. Wl\en, however, the winds blow from the deserts, during the fifty 
days following Easter, they raise whirlwinds of a hot and fine sand, which 
occasion frequent ophthalmias. In Cairo, there are an immense number 
of blind individuals, and at least one half of the inhabitants are aiflicted 
with diseases of the eye. While the plague prevails, other diseases cease, 
and particularly intermittent fevers. Diseases of the skin are very com- 
mon in this country. 
Mungo Park found numerous goitres and frequent swellings of the sub- 
maxillary glands, in different regions of Bambarra, along the river Niger. 
In the island of St Thomas, the inhabitants are affected with a species of 
elephantiasis, to such a degree, that Buffon mistook them for a new va- 
riety of the humati species. There is a dry and burning wind, called Hnr- 
mattan, blowing from the north-cast, which traverses the Sahara, loaded 
with a reddish vapour, or rather a fine and hot sand, which dries up the 
vegetation, chops the lips, occasions ophth.almias, but at the same time 
produces very saintary effects upon the system, so that, when it arrives 
at the marshy districts of Africa, it immediately drives off fevers, dropsy, 
and other diseases. 
Some disorders arc confined to the Negro race. The yaws, a disease 
in which elevated red blotches appear upon the skin, are so peculiar to 
this race, that they do not attack the Europeans in the colonies of Ame- 
rica, although apparently under the same circumstances. The inhabitants 
of the African deserts, who feed upon locusts, are subject, according to 
Drake, to the morbus pediailosus, of which disease numbers die before the 
age of forty. The western coasts of Africa are more unhealthy than the 
eastern, from the trade-winds blowing from the east, and becoming heated 
as they traverse the continent. 
The extensive hemisphere of America comprises a vast number of dif- 
ferent climates, and is liable to an immense number of endemical affec- 
tions. At its northern extremity, such as Labrador and Hudson’s Bay, 
and on the western coasts at Nootka Sound, few diseases are to be found 
except such as arise from the excessive cold. The descendants of the 
French and English, who have settled in Canada, have acquired the same 
hardy constitution as the Swedes. 
Intermittent fevers prevail gre.itly in the United States, from the 
marshy nature of the country. The frequent changes, as well as the 
humidity of the atmosphere, occasion catarrhal affections, inflammations 
of the pleura and lungs, with phthisis. Connecticut is more healthy. 
Louisiana is much subject to spasmodic affections and opisthotonos, a 
form of tetanus. 
Mexico, and indeed all equinoxial America, is moister, and covered 
more densely with forests than Africa. It is chiefly towards Vera Cruz, 
and its fatal coasts, that the yellow fever has long been known. Accord- 
ing to M. Humboldt, the ancient Mexicans, or Toltecs, had experienced 
this malady before the arrival of the Spaniards. It has spread rapidly 
throughout all the Spanish colonies and elsewhere, as at New York, St 
Domingo, Porto-Bello, where it bears the name of the black vomit, or 
vomito prieto. This fatal disease is chiefly endemical on the marshy banks 
of rivers, and towards the end of autumn. It principally attacks Euro- 
peans, and seems to spare the Negroes. Some ports of Spain and Italy 
are not exempt from this malady. Drop.sy is very common on the coast 
of Mexico. In all these warm chmates, tetanic affections very frequently 
follow ordinary wounds, causing sudden death, which has often been 
erroneously ascribed to the poison of the woorara and upas. 
During the rainy seasons in Jamaica, acute fevers and colics are the 
most common maladies, followed by paralysis. Many African maladies 
prevail here, especially among the Negroes, with whom they are imported. 
Most Europeans, on passing under the Tropics, experience a kind of 
feverish delirium called calenture, the eftect of the heat, and which goes 
off by vomiting. On arriving at the colonies, they fall into a state of ex- 
treme debility and languor. Afterwards, the abuse of strong liquors, 
fruit, and other habits nnsuiled to the climate, occ.asion them to become 
afflicted with dysenteries, diarrhmas, and boils. The Brazilians are ex- 
posed to frequent ulcerations of the feet, called bichos, produced by a 
species oi ^\ei\.(,Pulcx penetrans, Linn.'), which penetrates into the flesh. 
A red Insect {Ixodes nig^wt. Lair.) occurring in the Savannahs of Mar- 
tinique, occasions much inconvenience to the Negroes. 
Most writers consider Syphilis as imported from the New Continent, 
and it cannot be denied that it was found in Peru ; but the warm cli- 
mate and the vegetable diet of the inhabitants render it less dangerous than 
in our own climate. In some of the South Se.r Islands, this disease, in- 
troduced by Europeans, cures itself without medical treatment. The 
elevated plateaux of the Andes are very healthy, and contain many cen- 
tenaries. 
The influence of the various occupations of civilized life upon the hu- 
man frame is a subject of equal interest with that of the prevalence of 
diseases in particular localities. Under this head we may include seden- 
tary habits ; want of ventilation ; insufficient exercise of particular parts 
of the body ; exposure to cold ; over-exertion ; the excessive use of parti- 
cular parts ; unnatural or constrained positions ; exposure to heat, moisture, 
and the noxious fumes or minute particles of animal, vegetable, or mineral 
substances. 
Sedentary habits, when continued for a long time, and without those 
occasional relaxations necessary to the health of the system, are certain to 
shorten life. Persons of these habits soon become afflicted with stomach 
com|)]aiuts, and various organic diseases, in many cases arising from the 
pres.snre on the sternum and lower part of the stomach. Want of exercise 
is peculiarly fatal to the young, among whom it is ns necessary as food to 
the development of the several structures of the body. The eflTect of 
confinement is strikingly observable on comparing the crowded inhabitants 
of a manufacturing town with a body of active agriculturists. It not only 
stunts the growth but produces deformity, and depresses the mental 
powers. Mr Owen states that, in his factory at New Lanark, the chil- 
dren were frequently deformed in their limbs, their growth was stunted, 
and they were incapable of making any progress in the first rudiments of 
education. The evil effects of confinement are greatly increased by ex- 
cesses of any kind, such as too much food, or the use ol ardent spirits. 
On the other hand, too limited a supply of food is almost equally pre- 
judicial. Literary men in general sufler in an especial manner from the 
want of bodily exercise, on account of the disproportionate manner in 
which their mental powers are over-strained. In various classes of artizans, 
such as tailors, weavers, jewellers, engtavers, and watchmakers, the effects 
of long confinement are especially observable, and in the several classes 
of writing-clerks. Tailors arc particularly subject to curvatures of the 
spine, to inflammations of the stomach, bowels, and liver. In all the in- 
stances just enumerated, the muscular and nervous systems acquire au 
unn.aturul degree of subserviency to the lymphatic system. 
Want of ventilation is especially prejudicial in factories, where children 
and adults are congregated together in vast numbers and in over-heated 
apartments. The air becomes tainted with an excess of carbonic acid 
and animal tfflluvia, while oxygen is supplied in quantities too small to 
purify the blood during respiration. When the rooms are not heated «> 
the usual manner by a common fire-place, but by pipes of warm air or by 
steam, the ill effects of a want of ventilation become greatly increased. 
Exposure to cold is one chief cause of many diseases. Indeed, it may 
almost he said, that one-half of the deaths and two-thirds of the dise.-iscs 
that occur among the children of the poor, arc more or le.«s caused by 
cold. Numbers fall victims, during the winter and spring, to their want 
of sufficient clothing. A brief or moderate exposure to cold, during pet" 
feet health, acts as a useful stimulus to the vital action ; but a very ia* 
tense or long continued abstraction of heat acts as a direct impediment to 
its exertion. 
Exposure to heat is chiefly injurious from the subsequent transition to 
cold. The perspiration is suddenly checked, and the consequences ofteo 
become fatal. Rheumatism, asthma, catarrhs, and inflammation of the 
lungs, are the results of sudden exposure to cold, without the precaution 
of warm clothing. Bakers, brewers, sugar-refiners, forgers, and glass- 
blowers, are particularly liable from their occupations to be affected witn 
these diseases. 
Moisture, in itself, does not appear to be positively injurious, excep 
in so far as it lowers the temperature of the body by evaporation. A* 
the sea is usually warmer than the air during winter, it happens that, 
cases of shipwreck at this season, an almost total immersion in the water 
is less injurious than sitting in wet clothes exposed to the cold air, a” 
the rapid reduction of temperature during the time they are drying- 
Cullen records an instance of shipwreck, where the persons who li'^ 
longest were almost totally immersed in salt water; while the conse- 
quences were fatal to those who were exposed to the freezing influence 
of the wind only, or to the wind, assisted by the evaporation from 
clothes. Immersion for a long period in salt water is not so injurious 
in fresh, from the former being more stimul.ating. The use of spirituou* 
liquors during shipwreck increases the danger, as it raises the teinpe’’* 
ture of the body for a short time, only to render it more sensibly aftcc 
by the subsequent cold. It is not unfrequently followed by apoplexy 
Inattention to change wet clothes, whether from rain or perspiW 
merely after severe labour, is very injurious. This is the exciting c* ^ 
of most of the diseases found among fishermen, water-carriers, fullers, 
washerwomen. 
The animal effluvia of candle-manufactories, slaughter-houses, an 
secting-rooms, are generally unhealthy, although no positive diseases 
be assigned to them. In most of these occupations, where persons 
much exposed to animal effluvia, there are certain causes g, 
counteract the ill elf'ects that would otherwise follow. Tanners are 
served, by the tan and lime, from the injurious consequence of expn 
to animal matter and moisture. M. Patissier observes, that 
catgut manufacturers are free from phthisis, while glue and size n 
are comparatively healthy. 
