be effected, the city, through a consequent shrinkage of soil, would probably tumble down. And, finally, the existing condition of the national and municipal finances is such, that it is not easy for the authorities to determine how the money necessary to meet the contingent great expenditures—estimated at about $9,000,000, or a sum equivalent to more than one third of the entire annual revenue of the General Government—is to be provided.
It ought not to be inferred that there is special danger to travelers, or tourists, visiting the Mexican capital, and residing there during the winter months or early spring; for experience shows that, with ordinary precautions in respect to location, diet, exercise, and exposure, health can be maintained there as easily as in most of the cities of Italy at the same seasons. One serious draw-back to the visitation of Mexico by English-speaking foreigners, intent on either business or pleasure, is the absence of any suitable public pro vision for the care or comfort of any such who may happen to fall victims to accident or disease. This condition of things is greatly aggravated in case of contagious diseases, when the authorities, on notification by the landlord of any hotel or boarding-house, "immediately remove the patient to a public pest-house, where with scores or hundreds of uncongenial companions, suffering from
