Archibald Smith

Chances of life in Lima diminished by neglect of medical police.—Statements showing the proportion of deaths to the population of Lima.—Proportion between the different sexes and castes of the inhabitants.

If the mildness of contagious epidemic diseases were to afford a fair test by which to judge of the climate of any particular locality, or the medical police of its community, that of Lima would surely rank as one of the most favourable. But, however open and spacious be the construction of the houses and site of this capital, and whatever may be said for or against the personal and domestic cleanliness of its inhabitants, and other circumstances affecting the health of individuals, it must be admitted that the salubrity of Lima, and the chances of life it affords, are materially diminished from the want of due attention to public cleanliness.

The aqueducts or canals, which run along all the principal streets in a direction from east to west, and give off branches for gardens and convents, &c. are, after they have passed the city, to some extent usefully distributed on fields between it and the sea-port. But, in general, agriculture, like every other branch of industry, is neglected since the revolution. The drains intended to convey the surplus water from the city over a gentle slope, to impart that moisture to the good soil which could not otherwise part with its nutritive properties, or support vegetation, are frequently in a ruinous condition. Thus, the water is suffered to stagnate in some parts, and run waste in others, without being applied to those beneficial purposes of tillage which should be the means of augmenting the health, population, and general resources of Lima and its environs. By the street-canals, are to be seen all day long the industrious vultures, (by far the most efficient agents of police,) gulping up the refuse cast into these receptacles of every sort of nuisance. When the water runs in small quantity, or is altogether stopped from neglect, the quantity of vegetable and animal deposit carelessly allowed to accumulate in these channels emits a profusion of gaseous volatile poison, more or less penetrating and pernicious, according to the season of the year and heat of the weather.

The manure conveyed from the pens and stables, (which might be applied so as richly to repay the farmer’s toil, and be made to beautify at the same time that it enriched to an incalculable extent the adjacent plains,)—this manure, when not thrown into the canals, is conveyed to the broad walls of the picturesque city, and there heaped up day after day; or, if not thus disposed of, it is carried to the river’s brink, where it is suffered to accumulate into fermenting mounds of daily increasing size. Here it absorbs moisture, and generates miasmata that taint the air breathed by the inhabitants; and so their sloth is chastised. We are persuaded that their own culpable inattention to the cleanliness and salubrity of their capital contributes largely to entail upon them a greater proportion of disease and mortality than could at first sight be expected from the features of the climate. Those natives, indeed, who have passed a life of well-regulated habits, are said to attain a cheerful old age in Lima; and there are instances of a few individuals exceeding a hundred years of age, who preserve considerable bodily activity and mental vivacity. There was living, when we left Lima in 1836, an active little Franciscan friar, said to be considerably above a hundred. A Spanish gentleman of the name of Pellicer, very remarkable for the acuteness and vigour of his mental powers and general health, died in our own day, at the age of a hundred and two or three; and some other instances of this sort might be mentioned. These, however, are exceptions. For it is worthy of particular remark, that, whatever be the causes that tend to produce the melancholy result, the truth is, that the general mortality in Lima is very great; a fact which the records of its Pantheon fully confirm, as may be seen from the annexed documents.

TABLE

Showing the number of Deaths in Lima and its Suburbs from the year 1826 to the year 1835, both inclusive.

Before we offer any remarks on the above table taken from a careful examination of the register-books belonging to the Pantheon, or public cemetery of Lima, it may not be amiss to premise what was the population of Lima when the last census was taken, just before the revolution broke out, and when that city is supposed to have been full of people and at its acme of prosperity. This census, taken by John Baso, one of the “oidores,” or judges of that period, and dated at Lima, September 30, 1818, concludes by the following summary:—“As is demonstrated by the preceding statement, the capital of Lima comprehends within its walls, huts and cottages contiguous to the city gates, and suburbs of San Lazaro, 54,098 persons of all sexes, castes, states, and conditions, which are distinguished minutely in the same statement, of which the total amount consists of 27,545 males, and 26,553 females.”

During the ten years embraced by the above table of mortality, the population of Lima is always estimated, by the best informed natives, as much under, as at the time of the census of Baso it was found to be above, 50,000; but no data, or census of later date, by which to verify this matter in a precise manner, exist in the hands of the patriots; therefore it is in some degree subject of conjecture, although from the number of houses that are now abandoned, and the great falling away of the agricultural and horticultural labourers, we are probably not far from the truth in calling the average population of the capital and suburbs during the last ten years 45,000; in which case the deaths in twenty years will, according to the above rate, as seen from 1826 to 1835, amount to 47,000,—a number greater than the whole population given.

It may not be irrelevant to notice that, in the year 1828, (twenty years after the Pantheon had been opened for interment,) the much lamented General La Mar, at that time president of Peru, visited the burying-ground, and desired, at the suggestion, we are told, of Don Mariano Castilla, a gentleman who had the honour to accompany his excellency on the occasion, one of the chaplains of the cemetery, to inform him, after referring to the proper archives, the total number of bodies interred for the twenty years it had then been open to the public; and we are assured that the result corresponded closely with the rate expressed in our present statement. The archives of Beneficencia, to which the chaplain had recourse, are now lost or mislaid; but the account he furnished General La Mar, after these documents, then extant, were consulted, was published in some one of the periodicals of that day, which, however, we ourselves have not seen. It appears from our table of mortality, from 1826 to 1835, both years inclusive, that during the last four years the number of deaths has augmented in proportion to those that took place during the preceding six. The most obvious reason for which, that we can assign, is, that the late administrator of the cemetery and keeper of its register, to whose charge the books were left during the first six years, was not attentive (as his books yet testify) to enter the number of espuestos,—in other words, corpses left secretly in exposed situations, as, for example, at the Pantheon, hospital, or convent gates; but his successor (Pasos) has, throughout the last four years specified, been very careful to insert a correct enumeration of these cast-away bodies, as the writer has had an opportunity of ascertaining in looking over the books of this obliging person, who lent his willing aid to procure the details whence are drawn the general results expressed in the table.

The number of the espuestos is almost incredible, and shows the prevalency of great poverty; for it is but charitable to think that no one would thus cast away a child’s remains who was not deprived of the ordinary means of covering the expense of an humble interment: but it is said that, in this business, much fraud is committed by the parents of the deceased, who, to avoid paying the regular funeral dues, give the hearse-men a few reals for picking up the exposed bodies, and carrying them to the cemetery to be buried. For these considerations, it will not be unwarrantable to infer that the increase of deaths during the last four years on the table has not been so much in reality as in appearance, from the omission of duly registering the espuestos. Nor does it appear from a document now before us, titled, “Guia politica, eclesiastica, y militar del Peru,” by the celebrated and praiseworthy Dr. D. H. Unanue, published in the year 1793, that the gross amount of deaths has altered, in proportion to the existing population, to that extent which many persons would incline to believe, in consequence of the great increase of poverty and demoralization which have been experienced since that period. In 1793 the population was quoted in the “Guia” at 52,627, and the number of deaths at 2795, not including such as occurred among nuns or ecclesiastics; all of whom, conjointly, formed a large item in the population of Lima, and must have had a good many deaths among their number to increase the real bill of mortality.[5]

It cannot be supposed either, that war had much share in swelling the Pantheon list of dead in these latter years, because, though civil broils were frequent since the year 1826, yet Lima itself was not the usual seat of conflict. Some troops there were always stationed in this city; but, should these be excluded from the estimate of the regular population of the place, still, however, any difference in the sum of mortality thus produced from soldiers dying in hospitals and registered at the cemetery would be, most likely, more than equalled by the default in the account of the espuestos, especially young children, whose remains were irregularly interred, and so not at all entered upon the books. And as for the Montonera troops, or others who met with violent death in or about town during the late noisy skirmishes, they were, upon the whole, too inconsiderable to merit much notice in this place, as appears very clearly from the various entries made in the register by Pasos, the present administrator and book-keeper of the cemetery.