Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/624

604 irregular spots of reddish, white, and notably blue colors, sometimes advancing into scab and ulceration, with bad odor, but confined to the skin alone. It is most common among mestizos and mulattoes, next Indians, and least among whites and negroes.

The medical board of colonial days, which exercised beneficial control over the profession, was quickly curtailed in its jurisdiction under the federal system. The government of each state formed its board of health, and regulated the recognition and practice of medical men, and each municipal community had its committee to watch spasmodically over sanitary measures. Inferior colleges began to issue certificates, and abuses crept in by different ways. On the other hand, a good tone has been imparted by the influx of practitioners, such as French doctors and German apothecaries, and by the resort of students to Paris and other continental schools, so that the foremost practitioners are not far behind the Europeans in medical knowledge. The numerical increase of the profession has not had the effect of reaching a proportionately larger number of sufferers, for it must be borne in mind that friars and curates used to practise the healing art in a limited degree; and with the decline of their influence were lost many of the benefits flowing from their hands.

Another blow at this source of charity was the secularization of all benevolent institutions, notably