apothecary rather than the physician, is enormous in proportion to the population. Vital statistics are not obtained with the greatest accuracy, and only the constant care of the superior officer enables any result worthy of attention to be obtained. The following table is tolerably accurate. The population is, as estimated on December 31: 1883 1881 1,252,497 28,146 25,708 53,854 14,019 11,940 25,959 27,895 4,611 31,595 24,464 4,864 4,287 1884 1885 Of the children born in 1883, 41,260 were legitimate, and 13,162 natural; 16,991 were ladinos, and 37,431 Indios. The legitimate children were in the proportion of one to every one hundred and twenty-eight of the ladino population, and one to every forty-one of the Indios. The natural births stand one to each one hundred and eighty-three ladinos, and one to each two hundred and seven Indios, - proportions which speak volumes for the superior morality of the indigenous population. No less than nine hospitals were supported by the Government in 1883, - one each in Antigua, Amatitlan, Escuintla, Quezaltenango, Retalhuleu, and Chiquimula, and three in Guatemala City. In these 11,998 patients. were treated during the year, with the result of one death to every thirteen treated. Of the diseases from which patients died, the following is a list of all numbering over Of the consumptive patients, probably the majority were foreigners seeking safety in the mild climate of Guatemala; and in the others the disease was not of throat origin, but sprang from that unclean state that wise physicians are beginning to recognize as phthisical in its tendency. I wish I could say more of the remedies of the Indios. In a land abounding in healing plants, it would be supposed that the inhabitants would be expert in their qualities; and so the Indios are, if report may be trusted (they are said to cure even hernia, by applying astringent herbs to the tumor). But they are shy, and unwilling to display their knowledge before strangers; and my stay among them was too short to invite their confidence. The Caribs do not seem to possess much knowledge of the healing art. From the bodily ills of a people one turns naturally to the moral diseases; and it is interesting to note what are the crimes and misdemeanors to which punishments are most frequently allotted. Of 9,303 persons tried during the course of 1883, 6,125 were accused of misdemeanors (faltas), and 3,178 of crimes (delitos). Of the former class 764 were acquitted, while of those tried for crimes. 1,515 were judged not guilty, leaving only 1,663 criminals out of a population of a million and a quarter. The carefully prepared tables published each year by the Government show that there is hardly one delinquent for each thousand inhabitants; that notwithstanding the greatly inferior numbers of the ladinos, this class claims. many more convicts; and that eighty per cent of the criminals have no education. Included in the "other delitos' are several crimes much more common in New England and elsewhere, — perjury, nine; libel, fifteen; arson, thirteen; poisoning, three; infanticide, four; bribery, two; abandonment of infants, four. In Livingston the "Court" kindly consented to sit for its portrait; and although this abode of the blind goddess was very dark, I got a satisfactory picture. I also photographed a man sitting in the stocks |