Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 187 of 407 - First - Home
The Road From San Fernando To Cumana Passes Amidst Small
Plantations, Through An Open And Humid Valley.
We forded a number
of rivulets.
In the shade the thermometer did not rise above 30
degrees: but we were exposed to the direct rays of the sun, because
the bamboos, which skirted the road, afforded but small shelter,
and we suffered greatly from the heat. We passed through the
village of Arenas, inhabited by Indians, of the same race as those
at San Fernando. But Arenas is no longer a mission; and the
natives, governed by a regular priest,* (* The four villages of
Arenas, Macarapana, Mariguitar, and Aricagua, founded by Aragonese
Capuchins, are called Doctrinas de Encomienda.) are better clothed,
and more civilized. Their church is also distinguished in the
country by some rude paintings which adorn its walls. A narrow
border encloses figures of armadilloes, caymans, jaguars, and other
animals peculiar to the new world.
In this village lives a labourer, Francisco Lozano, who presented a
highly curious physiological phenomenon. This man has suckled a
child with his own milk. The mother having fallen sick, the father,
to quiet the infant, took it into his bed, and pressed it to his
bosom. Lozano, then thirty-two years of age, had never before
remarked that he had milk: but the irritation of the nipple, sucked
by the child, caused the accumulation of that liquid. The milk was
thick and very sweet. The father, astonished at the increased size
of his breast, suckled his child two or three times a day during
five months. He drew on himself the attention of his neighbours,
but he never thought, as he probably would have done in Europe, of
deriving any advantage from the curiosity he excited. We saw the
certificate, which had been drawn up on the spot, to attest this
remarkable fact, eye-witnesses of which are still living. They
assured us that, during this suckling, the child had no other
nourishment than the milk of his father. Lozano, who was not at
Arenas during our journey in the missions, came to us at Cumana. He
was accompanied by his son, then thirteen or fourteen years of age.
M. Bonpland examined with attention the father's breasts, and found
them wrinkled like those of a woman who has given suck. He observed
that the left breast in particular was much enlarged; which Lozano
explained to us from the circumstance, that the two breasts did not
furnish milk in the same abundance. Don Vicente Emparan, governor
of the province, sent a circumstantial account of this phenomenon
to Cadiz.
It is not a very uncommon circumstance, to find, among animals,
males whose breasts contain milk; and climate does not appear to
exercise any marked influence on the greater or less abundance of
this secretion. The ancients cite the milk of the he-goats of
Lemnos and Corsica. In our own time, we have seen in Hanover, a
he-goat, which for a great number of years was milked every other
day, and yielded more milk than a female goat.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 187 of 407
Words from 96837 to 97348
of 211363