446 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT. COPAN. 
of malignant epidemics extending over a century, striking first one city 
and then another scattered over a large region, or an endemic of suffi- 
cient virulency to have accomplished the same end, but working more 
slowly. The first would be almost if not quite unique in medical annals, 
and the second, even if granted, is hardly sufficient in itself to have brought 
about the complete evacuation of the entire region covered by the Old 
Empire civilization. And yet malaria of a pernicious type is endemic in 
this region to-day, and may have been during the Old Empire as well, 
although this point is not certain. It is generally believed that when the 
Old Empire civilization was at its height, the forests which now cover the 
country were down and the land cleared and under cultivation. If so, there 
would not have been nearly so many breeding-places as there are to-day for 
the myriad insects which now make the region so unhealthful, and the 
mosquito (Anopheles) in particular, must have been very much less abun- 
dant, and malaria, if present at all, correspondingly less prevalent. To-day, 
as the writer can testify, this disease is an ever-present source of sickness 
and debility among the scattered itinerant population of the Peten forests, 
mahogany-cutters, chicle-bleeders, and a few hundred Indians, and in order 
for the Old Empire civilization to have developed at all in such an unfavor- 
able environment, let alone to have achieved the most brilliant results in 
architecture and sculpture in ancient America, it is almost necessary to 
postulate the former non-existence of malaria, or at least its very limited 
prevalence. 
During the Old Empire, and particularly during the Great Period, when 
the greatest number of cities flourished and the country supported a really 
large population, possibly five hundred times larger than it is to-day, we 
must assume that the forests, particularly in the vicinity of the cities, were 
down, and that consequently malaria was very much less prevalent than it 
is at present. But let any condition arise which would bring back the forests, 
such as Huntington believes actually took place through supposed climatic 
changes during the fifth and sixth centuries after Christ, malaria would 
almost certainly have increased immediately and played an important part 
in discouraging the Maya with their old homes. Even if such climatic 
changes as those suggested by Huntington are not postulated, it is not 
improbable that malaria was endemic during the Old Empire as well as 
to-day, although less general, and it may have been one of the minor causes 
contributing to the great historic movement under investigation.! 


1The two most devastating diseases prevalent in the Old Empire region to-day are malaria and hook-worm, both 
caused by parasites, the former of the blood, the latter of the intestinal tract. Both General Gorgas of the Interna- 
tional Health Board of the Rockefeller Foundation, and Assistant Surgeon General Stiles of the Public Health Ser- 
.vice agree that the latter was not indigenous to America, but was introduced here from the West Coast of Africa 
with the slave trade. Neither, however, feels able to say as much of malaria. Gorgas recently told the writer 
he believes the place of origin of this disease to be still an open question and Stiles in a letter of November 12, 
1919, says: “I would not commit myself definitely to the question of the origin of malaria other than to say that 
it is a tropical and a subtropical disease.’ It would appear from these authorities that malaria with its serious 
sequalz of debilitation and permanent impairment of health, resulting in decreased productivity in every line, 
may have been the chief ailment with which the ancient Maya had to contend. 
