in a criminal lack of care during the periods of maternity and childhood. This is proved by the enormous death rate among children below the age of ten, which in some districts reaches fifty per cent or more of the total.[1] In bringing forward their array of retarding causes, as given in the foot-note, most writers overlook that most of the injurious features complained of have nearly always existed, and are shared by the fast-growing mestizos, who, moreover, expose themselves more to the vicissitudes of war than any other class. It must be admitted that the contact of races with its active and passive influence is entitled to greater consideration, although not to the same extent as in the United States, where the relative conditions of life are so widely different.[2]
In this connection must be weighed the effect of absorption by the mixed race, generally embraced under the term mestizo,[3] which has grown at a comparatively enormous rate, at the expense of both Indians and whites. Its former proportion of twentytwo per cent to the total population has now expanded to about forty-three, while the whites have increased only to twenty per cent, and the aborigines declined from sixty to thirty-seven. The negro mixtures are practically merged in them, and the greater part of
- ↑ Consult Reyes, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, ep. 2a, i. 180 et seq. Among the causes enumerated are, the metate grinding and other hard work imposed on women, early marriages, the liquors and medicines taken by prospective mothers, abortion, the lack, in the provinces at least, of lying-in hospitals and foundling asylums, neglect of vaccine and other precautions, injudicious feeding of children on boiled maize and other vegetables and sugar-cane, combined with insufficient exercise and ignorant treatment, and the use of lime in preparing the universal tortilla. As a result, the children are said to become pot-bellied and scrofulous; and growing up weak, they perpetuate their diseases, and fall ready victims to epidemics and famine, both aided by intemperance, improvidence, and filth. It may be observed that pulmonary diseases make terrible inroads, partly owing to the high elevation of the plateau. Reyes shows that they exceed one eighth of the total death ravage. Id., 172; Sartorius, Mex., 10; Hernandez, Mex., 71; Garcia Cubas, Escritos Div., 54; Rosa, Mem., 15; Tylor's Anahuac, 306.
- ↑ In some of the northern states along the United States border, the disappearance of the Indian is very marked.
- ↑ For names of castes and Indian tribes, see Garcia Cubas, Mex., 61 et seq.; my Native Races, i., passim; Orozco y Berra, Geog., passim; Mühlenpfordt, Mej., 199, 208; Tschudi, Peru, 15; Mayer's Mex. Aztec, ii. 37.
