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.[1]
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,[2] and regulated the recognition and practice of medical men, and each municipal community had its committee to watch spasmodically over sanitary measures.[3] 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
- ↑ It may appear at any age, but children between four and six years are most liable to it. Goitre also prevails in Tabasco, and certain other districts of the belt referred to, and Leon is inclined to attribute it to decaying vegetable and other matter disseminated chiefly through the water used for food. Id., x. 345-53. See also Registro Trimestre, ii. 85-95.
- ↑ As inaugurated already by a decree from Spain of June 23, 1813, and continued in 1820. Gaz. Méx., xii. 69-72.
- ↑ As regulated by state governments, Arrillaga, Recop., 1836, 437-40, and subsequent laws. In Tamaulipas, extensive drainage canals were planned, Eco de Exp., Oct. 8, 1853, 4.
ment there. The causes are variously ascribed to uncleanliness, sexual contagion, with hereditary symptoms, insect bites, especially from the gegen, eating certain unclean fish, and 'acceso del hombre con la lagarta,' as a curate declared. Id., iii. 75. The water is also looked upon as a cause, and the smilax sarsaparilla plant; but Leon is rather inclined to attribute the origin to a disease of the maize, the hongo, particularly common in the afflicted belt, where less care is used in preparing this grain for food.
