The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-06-01
LIFE IN THE ANDES.
The City of QuitO-The Delightful
Climate 10, 900 Feet Above the Sea.
From '.rne Anss s a gs., the A.,mauons. in

4uEn we uOH " u more UeugltIu
topic than the politics and religion o
Quito. The climate is perfect. F'ail
Italy, with her classic prestige and
ready access, will long be the land O.
promise to travellers eXpatriated in the
search of health. But If ever the an.
clients had reached this Andean valley,
they would have located here the Elys'
ian Fields, or the seat OF 1.-THE blessed
the happy and long-liyed of Anacre-
on" No torrid heat enervates the in
habitant of this faYorite spot; no icy
breezes send him shivering to the fire.
Nobody is sun-struck-nobody's buds
are nipped by the frost. Stoves and
chimneys, starvation and epidemics
are unknown. The mean annual tenn
perature of Quito is SIS degrees, or ex-
actly one degree lower than that OF
Rome. The average range in twenty
four hours is about 10 degrees. The
grees. The mean diurnal variation Of
the barometer is only OPS. So regular
is the oscillation, as likewise the varia-
tons of the magnetic needle, that the
hour may be known within fifteen
minutes by the barometer or compass.
Such is the clock-like order of nature
under the equator that even the rains,
the most irregular of all metereologi'
cal phenomena in temperate zones,
tells approximately the hour or the
day. The winds, too. have an orderly
march-the ebb and How of an serial
ocean. No wonder watch thinkers can
not live where all the forces in nature
keep time. Nobody talks about the
weather; conversation begins with BEN
edIctions or compliments.
The greatest variations OF the Their
mOmeter occur in autumn, and the
greatest quantity of rain falls in April.
While on the western side of the Andes,
south of the equator, the dry season
extends from June to January, on the
eastern side of the Cordillera the sea-
sons are reversed, the rains lasting
from March TO November. The climate
of the central valley is modified by this
opposition of seasons OH either side of
It. as also by the proximity of snowy
peaks. Nine such peaks stand around
Quito within a circle of thirty miles.
The prevailing winds in summer are
from the northeast; in the winter the
southwest predominant.
There are only three small drug
stores in the great city of Quito. Ply
sicians have no offices, nor do they, as
q general rule, call upon their patients.
When an invalid is not able to go to
the DOCTORS, he is expected to die. yell
low fever, cholera and consumption are
unknown; while intermittent fevers,
dysentery and liver complaints, so
pE6NdltuI vi Lue COhSAf dE6
The ordinary diseases are catarrhal
affections and typhoid fever. Gases OF
Inflammation of the lungs arc rare;
more coughing may be heard during a
Sunday service in n New England
Westinghouse than in six months in
Quito. The diseases to which the
monks OF st. Bernard are liable are
pulmonary, and the greater number
becoming asthmatic. Asthma Is also
common in Quito, while phthisis
increases as we descend to the sea.
Digestive disorders are somewhat fire.
quent Contrary to the theory in Eu-
rope), but they spring from improper
food and sedentary habits. The cuisine
of the country does not tempt the
stomach to repletion and the climate is
decidedly peptic. So the typhoid fever
of Quito is due to filth, poor diet and
want o; ventilation. Corpulency, es-
pecially among the men. is astonish-
ingly rare. According TO DIR. Lombard,
mountain districts favor the develop
ment of diseases of thu heart: and con-
tagious diseases are not arrested by the
atmosphere of LOFTY regions. This is
true in Quito. But while nervous dis
eases are rare in the inhabited high
ands OF Europe, in Quito they are COM
mon. Sleep is said to be more tran
quill and refreshing, and the circula-
ton NOR regular at high attitudes; but
our experience does not sustain this.
Goitre is quite common among the
mountains. L! is sign OF constitu-
tional weakness, for the children OF
goitred parents are usually deaf and
dumb, and the succeeding generation
idiots. Boussingault thinks 1t is ow-
ing to the lack of atmospheric air in
the water; but why is It nearly con-
fined to the women? In the southern
provinces about Cuenca, cntaneous af-
fections are quite frequent. In the
highlands generally, scrofulous dis
Gates are more common than in the
plains. There are three hospitals for
lepersi one at Cuenca with two hun
dred patients, one at Quito with one
hundred and twelve patients, and one
at Ambato. Near RiObamba is a COM
munity of dwarfs.
D'Orbigny made post mortenI ex-
animation of some Indians from the
OF extraordinary dimentions, the cells
larger and more in number. Hence
the unnatural proportion of the trunk,
which is plainly out OF harmony with
the extremities. The expanded chest
OF the mountaineers is evidently the
result of larger Inspirations to secure
the requisite amount of oxygen, which
is much less in given space at Quito
than on the coast. We tried the ex-
pertinent OF burning candle one hour
at Guayaquil and another part of the
same candle for the same period at
Quito. Temperature at Guayaquil So,
at Quito 62o. The loss at Guayaquil
was 40 grains, at quito ia, or %
grains less at the elevation of $500
feet. Acoustics will also illustrate the
thinness of the air, NJ. Godid found
(l745) that nine-pounder conld not be
heard mt the distance of l2l, 537 feet;
and that an eight-pounder at Paris at
the distance of 102, 664 feet was louder
than a nine-pounder at Quito at the
distance of 6T,240 feet.
According to DIR. Archibald Smith,
the power OF muscular exertion in a
native of the coast is greatly Increased
by living at the height of 10000 feet.
But 1t is also asserted by observing
travellers that dogs and bulls lose their
combativeness at an elevation OF 1900
feet, and that hence there can never be
a good bull fight or dog fight on the
Sierras. This is literally true-the dogs
seem ,n to PaTt aI;er of the ta%eness
flourish at all at high attitudes;
and probably the lion, transported
from the low jungle to the table lands,
would lose much of his ferocity. Still,
cock fights seem to prosper; and the
battle of Pichincha was fought on an
elevation of nearly IL 600 feet. Bolivar
ana the SpanlarosB alsoS fought like
tigers on the high plain Of Junin.
The sickness felt by some OF the tray
elers at great elevations-violent head
ache and dispositionto vomit, is called
Uetd; and the difficulty OF breathing
from the rarity of air is called puma.
Gerard complained of severe headache
and depression OF spirits at the height
of 5000 feet on the Himalayas; and
DIR. Barry, in ascending Mont Blanc
7 = fanNA -