Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/734

714 coasts, (the Vomito, and the Cholera Morbus,) and that, from the greatness of the elevation, the action of the sun upon the marshes in the vicinity of the Capital does not produce agues, or other fevers, to which the Tierras Calientes are subject. But, on the other hand, the rarefaction of the atmosphere is fatal to all who have any tendency to pulmonary complaints; while, from the extreme difficulty of inducing perspiration, rheumatism, to which foreigners are peculiarly subject, often takes such a hold upon the constitution, as to set all ordinary remedies at defiance. Inflammatory fevers are likewise very common; and, during the months when the sun is vertical, exposure to its rays is not unattended with danger. I lost a servant, upon my first arrival in the country, by a coup de soleil; my little girl was nearly killed by a similar attack; and I conceive the madness of a groom, who accompanied me on several of my journeys, to have proceeded, in some measure, from the same cause. Amongst the natives, scarlet fever, and measles, often become epidemic disorders, and occasion an extraordinary mortality. In 1825 fifteen thousand persons were carried off by them in the Capital alone, and their ravages extended from North to South throughout the Table-land. The number of deaths was, however, attributed by medical men more to the want of proper food and care, than to the virulence of the disease itself, which was seldom attended with fatal effects in families where proper precautions could be taken.