216 
C. J. SIHLER. 
and has been one of the chief causes of the gradual extinction 
of that race. Both Hirsch and Evans, quoting Grant, say 
that on the Island of Madagascar consumption is as common 
as it is in any part of Europe, and rapidly fatal. The principal 
diet of the natives is meat, milk and rice. 
The natives of Great Kabylia, according to Hirsch anc 
Evans, enjoy an almost absolute immunity from phthisis 
According to the history of the people, there is no evidence 
of the presence of the bovine tribe among them; but the} 
possess large flocks of sheep and goats, and each family has 
usually one buffalo ox to do the plowing. As these are £ 
peculiar people, with peculiar ideas and peculiar habits, no' 
calculated to encourage visits from European invalids, the} 
retain their immunity from phthisis to the present day. Then 
are many countries fnrnishing statistics of death rate fron 
phthisis where the disease is not indigenous, but due to impor 
tation. Edmond About, in his book on “ Greece anc 
Grecians,” tell us that the town of Athens possesses only fivt 
or six cows ; no other milk is drank than that of the sheep 
their butter alone is eaten. They eat meat but once a year 
The entire population eat meat at Easter for the whole year 
and this meat is lamb’s. The disease is very rare in tha 
country. (Roser.) 
Prof. James Orton, of Vassar College, who made a scien 
tific expedition to the equatorial Andes, in 1867, under the 
auspices of the Smithsonian Institute, says: “At Quito, thi 
highest city in the world, suddenly we are looking down int< 
the valley of Chimbo; there are herds of cattle and fields 0 
grain, yet we shall not find a quart of milk or a loaf of breaf 
for sale. The people insist on first boiling the milk.” Profes 
sor Orton further says consumption is unknown in the city. 
Without going into further details respecting separat 
communities, let us consider the statistics of Europe, an^ 
there we find the prevalence of phthisis is regulated by th 
ratio of the bovine to the human race. Thus, in Ireland 
where the cattle number 4,570,000 nearly an equal proportio 
to that of the inhabitants, according to Doctor Wyldc 
phthisis is by far the most fatal affection to which the ii 
habitants of that country are subject. 
