liver complaints are very rare, as is also the chronic affection of that organ, unless as connected with the preceding disorder.
Fevers are not common amongst Europeans, in Manila. Amongst the natives, the intermittent is of common occurrence, particularly after the rains (in September and October), and in woody or marshy situations.[1] This appears to be owing as much to the thinness and want of clothing, together with their habits of bathing indiscriminately at all hours, as to miasmata; and, as their fevers are generally neglected, they often superinduce other and more fatal disorders, as obstructions, &c. Tetanos in cases of wounds is of common occurrence, and generally fatal.
Their population, by a census taken in 1817-18, amounted to 2,236,000 souls, and is increasing rapidly. In one province, that of Pampanga, from 1817 to 1818, there was an increase of 6,737 souls, the whole population being in 1817, 22,500; but I suspect some inaccuracy in this. The total increase from 1797 to 1817, 25 [sic] years, is by this statement 835,500, or 3,360 per annum! In this census are included only
- ↑ Le Gentil thus speaks of the placer-mining practiced by the Indians in Luzon (Voyage, ii, p. 32): "It is true that this sort of life shortens the days of these wretched people; as they are perpetually in the water, they swell, and soon die. Besides that, the friars say that it is their experience that the Indians who lead that sort of life have no inclination to follow the Christian life, and that they give much trouble to the ministers of God who instruct them. Despite that, it is to the friars and to the alcaldes that these Indians sell their gold."– Eds.
