Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/778

758 epidemics; for while it may not kill so rapidly, the asthenic effect on population is even more injurious. In New Spain the causes for it existed in a fine sky and fertile soil, which fostered both indolence and improvidence; in a more than usual lack of means for communication by which to open markets for surplus produce; and in the simple tastes of the masses, with little or no inducement to extend the range of agriculture. It need not excite astonishment, therefore, when we learn that in 1784 alone three hundred thousand persons are supposed to have perished from hunger and its attendant train.

The practice of medicine was neither extensive nor well advanced, and the empiric and superstitious method of 'wise people' and quacks had free sway; notably the Indian medicine-men, whose art was not disdained even by the superior class, despite the efforts of Spanish physicians to restrict it. A protomédico was early sent over from Spain with power to supervise other members of the profession, and apothecaries to test their drugs, and to communicate discoveries to and from the mother country, and later to examine candidates and grant certificates to practise. In 1621 a chair of surgery and anatomy was established at the university of Mexico, and twenty-five years later the protomédico office was combined with the professorship, forming the head of a medical board with wide jurisdiction, including later the functions of a board of health. A protomédico-general came over at times to carry out reforms, such as to exact a more thorough hospital course for surgeons, and a more thorough training for apothecaries.