New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-07-04
NO ePYGMY CITY" ON ANDEAN HEIGHT
Sort of People To Be Found in Region o.
Mount Sorata, Bolivia.
10 th. Editor AL The Tribune.


Sir: Mount Sorata. OF the Bolivian Andes, which
Miss Peck and Professor Tight are about to climb
is not the highest peak of the Incan Andes Nor
will they find city above the plateaus OF tne
Andes that is. say twelve Thousand feet high
''pygrny' city does not exist the face OF the
earth in spite of what Halliburton, the authority
on the worlds dwarfs and Stanley OF African
fame. would have believe. Whenever there Is
much dwaring the dies out 1 have bad
great deal of correspondence with Halliburton and
Professor Starr. of the University Of Chicago. on
this last point existence of pygmy races especially
regarding the mountains Of South America Central
America and Mexico. and there are none there. And
g pygrry race" never existed anywhere, accord
to what Brenton told Virchow said dwarfism
was the product of Indebtedness.
AS to altitude Sorata is 1920 feet high, while
Guaitiera of Bolivia, Is 22.00o feet Ecuadorian
Chin borazo is d 40 feet in height No city will be
found beyond the plateaus Of the Andean ranges
The tableand OF Titicaca is 1900 feet high; the
group of plateaus of the holy city Of the Incas.
Cuzco is $500 feet high. It is here where Bande-
bel, OF the American Museum, has done such good
work in unearthng cities. To look for city on the
top OF Sorata ridiculous. Bolivian and Peruvian
ancient dwelling sites the average on liable
lands Il. 900 feet above sea level-that is two Eng
Ish miles Here dwelt the Incan and Aymaran
races, those prehistoric, pre-Columban Teoples Of
whose diseases I have made a special study. (See
Transactions Berlin Anthropoogical Society,"
The Aymaran indiana. who occupied those
heights of the Andes surely for seven centuries
before the Incan conquest and perhaps many mora
before the Incan civilization known have
population of three-quarters Of million. They are
the true Titicaca race, and occupy now the north
east of Bolivia and Southern Peru The Quichua,
or Incan. race occupies the northern part Of Peru
and South Bolivia, while the Guaranys occupy
Brazil and Paraguay These are the ancient Ameri-
high peak jewellers. The Aymaras are the
third in numbers of these three great pre-Colum-
bian tribes. Sorata was of their strongholds.
Thev in leVat before q
first Inca, Nance Capac O02l-'62 A. d.. A
strange fact about these Aymaras is that the
negroes Of Pizarro's time C536 A D. have died out
among them It is rare to meet halfbreed
Aymaran and negro. Physically the Aymaras.
through their centuries of high eltitudinal life
have developed anatomical characteristics peculiar
to life at such altitude-greater length of trunk
enormous development OF chest by breathing rari-
fed air, shortness of arms. legs and feet and great
difference in relative proportion of parts which
make up those members. The rare air, circulating
in the blood and its action the lungs and heart,
also results in varcosed state of the surface veins
of the legs These Indians because of the large de-
velopment of the chest do not suffer from puma,
sorochi. the kind Of pneumonia brought by
overexertton in working the lungs at much
greater than ordinarily. in consequence of
the very attenuated state of the atmosphere at
those elevations. Onions used by the Indians
as the remedy to prevent these bad effects, both
in and beast. The first effects of the high air
commence at 1850 feet. Even cats cannot live at
this elevation.
The thigh of Aymaran Indian is shorter than
the leg. which is not the with any other
of man yet discovered. There is great peculiar
ity in the Aymaran foot-absence of a considerable
protuberance the heel just the opposite of the
negro heel, or the level heel, might call
Avaran f Of LG0rolo 81 cg
in front of the leg than even in the EuropeaR He
is monkey footed. Ashes and burned lime are
Both Aymaras and Quichuas use. ashes containing
an alkali or alkaline earth like lime with coca
Even before the Incan conquest Of the Aymaras
5nag OF 6 d aItapes (eevenln fentYTy1 the
Quichua and means "hot'D. were lime eaters.
Seated and Naca (both), or according TO another
version from one OF the Incas: having the spot
indian courier who had just arrived from m
article Of commerce: The word "huanaco'' is
h9 3 This animal is altogether Peculiar 70
Peru. It suffers from diseases usual in man,
anu Is treated with the same remedies as
!Aynaras and Incas were contracted from the
lower animal Qlad origin in the llama), for men
mountain heights with the woolly llama to keep
The blood of the llama of high attitudes is said
70 De a curative for consumption by reason Of the
the Alps and Pyrenees of Europe There is no
more more dwarfsm however, in the Andes than in any
other place where goltre is found Coitre cretinsn
c'clay eaters disease" it was wrongly called
the same disease mountain air breathing for a
long tme) the result of disease of the thyroid
yidual growth and development The three stages
90 not appear IN the one person, but in separate
generations a goitrous parent grandparent
produces the dwarfed child grandchiId. They
are evidences OF degeneracy the dying out Of
a race The human species cannot exist in the
Mghly rarihed air of sucn mountains as Sorata
ChimbOrazO and AreQupa.
ALBERI S ASHMEAD. NJ D.
NewYork, June p, 1903. 49,
NAVAL STORES.