Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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If The Atmospheric Constitution Of The Valley Be Favourable To The
Different Kinds Of Culture On Which Colonial Industry Is Based, It
Is Not Equally Favourable To The Health Of The Inhabitants, Or To
That Of Foreigners Settled In The Capital Of Venezuela.
The extreme
inconstancy of the weather, and the frequent suppression of
cutaneous perspiration, give birth to catarrhal affections, which
assume the most various forms.
A European, once accustomed to the
violent heat, enjoys better health at Cumana, in the valley of
Aragua, and in every place where the low region of the tropics is
not very humid, than at Caracas, and in those mountain-climates
which are vaunted as the abode of perpetual spring.
Speaking of the yellow fever of La Guayra, I mentioned the opinion
generally adopted, that this disease is propagated as little from
the coast of Venezuela to the capital, as from the coast of Mexico
to Xalapa. This opinion is founded on the experience of the last
twenty years. The contagious disorders which were severely felt in
the port of La Guayra, were scarcely felt at Caracas. I am not
convinced that the American typhus, rendered endemic on the coast
as the port becomes more frequented, if favoured by particular
dispositions of the climate, may not become common in the valley:
for the mean temperature of Caracas is considerable enough to allow
the thermometer, in the hottest months, to keep between twenty-two
and twenty-six degrees. The situation of Xalapa, on the declivity
of the Mexican mountains, promises more security, because that town
is less populous, and is five times farther distant from the sea
than Caracas, and two hundred and thirty toises higher:
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