XVI 
HYDROPHOBIA 
377 
extraordinarily numerous. I measured one which was fifteen 
feet in circumference : how surprising it is that every atom of 
the woody matter in this great cylinder should have been 
removed, and replaced by silex so perfectly that each vessel 
and pore is preserved ! These trees flourished at about the 
period of our lower chalk ; they all belonged to the fir-tribe. 
It was amusing to hear the inhabitants discussing the nature 
of the fossil shells which I collected, almost in the same terms 
as were used a century ago in Europe,—namely, whether or 
not they had been thus “ born by nature.” My geological 
examination of the country generally created a good deal of 
surprise amongst the Chilenos : it was long before they could 
be convinced that I was not hunting for mines. This was 
sometimes troublesome: I found the most ready way of 
explaining my employment was to ask them how it was that 
they themselves were not curious concerning earthquakes and 
volcanoes ?—why some springs were hot and others cold ?— 
why there were mountains in Chile, and not a hill in La Plata? 
These bare questions at once satisfied and silenced the greater 
number; some, however (like a few in England who are a 
century behindhand), thought that all such inquiries were use¬ 
less and impious ; and that it was quite sufficient that God 
had thus made the mountains. 
An order had recently been issued that all stray dogs 
should be killed, and we saw many lying dead on the road. 
A great number had lately gone mad, and several men had 
been bitten and had died in consequence. On several occasions 
hydrophobia has prevailed in this valley. It is remarkable 
thus to find so strange and dreadful a disease appearing time 
after time in the same isolated spot. It has been remarked 
that certain villages in England are in like manner much more 
subject to this visitation than others. Dr. Unanue states that 
hydrophobia was first known in South America in 1803 : this 
statement is corroborated by Azara and Ulloa having never 
heard of it in their time. Dr. Unanue says that it broke out 
in Central America, and slowly travelled southward. It 
reached Arequipa in 1807 ; and it is said that some men 
there, who had not been bitten, were affected, as were some 
negroes who had eaten a bullock which had died of hydro¬ 
phobia. At lea forty-two people thus miserably perished. 
