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M. Lavoisier found by his calculations that the inhabitants of Paris consumed annually in his time 90 millions of pounds of animal food of all sorts, which amounts to 163 pounds * (79 kilogrammes) per individual. In estimating the animal food yielded by the animals designated in the preceding table, according to the principles of Lavoisier, modified according to the localities, the consumption of Mexico in every sort of meat is 26 millions of pounds, or 189 pounds (kilogrammes) † per individual. This dif ference is so much the more remarkable as the population of Mexico includes 33,000 Indians, who consume very little animal food.

The consumption of wine has greatly increased since 1791, especially since the introduction of the Brownonian system in the practice of the

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† 204 lb. averd. The author has omitted to insert the integral number of kilogrammes. I have merely converted the French pounds into averdupois, and left the error of the text as I found it. Trans.

Mexican physicians. The enthusiasm with which this system was received in a country where asthenical or debilitating remedies had been employed to an excess for ages, produced, according to the testimony of all the merchants of Vera Cruz, the most remarkable effect on the trade in luscious Spanish wines (vins liquoreux). These wines, however, are only drunk by the wealthy class of the inhabitants. The Indians, Mestizoes, Mulattoes, and even the greatest number of white Creoles, prefer the fermented juice of the agave, called pulque, of which there is annually consumed the enormous quantity of 44 millions of bottles, containing 48 cubic inches* each. The immense population of Paris only consumed annually in the time of M. Lavoisier 281,000 muids of wine, brandy, cyder, and beer, equal to 80,928,000 bottles †.

The consumption of bread at Mexico is equal to that of the cities of Europe. This fact is so much the more remarkable, as at Caraccas, at Cumana, and Carthagena de las Indias, and in all the cities of America situated under the tor

58.141 cubic inches English. Trans.

+ These bottles must contain somewhat more than the English. It is believed that an English gallon generally runs five bottles, in which case the bottle would only contain 46 cubic inches; but even supposing two pints to the bottle, it would only contain 57.8 cubic inches, still somewhat less than the above. Trans.

rid zone, but on a level with the ocean, or very little above it, the creole inhabitants live on almost nothing but maize bread, and the jatropha manihot. If we suppose, with M. Arnould, that 325 pounds of flour yield 416 pounds of bread, we shall find that the 130,000 loads of flour consumed at Mexico yield 49,900,000 pounds of bread, which amounts to 363 pounds* per individual of every age. Estimating the habitual population of Paris at 547,000 inhabitants, and the consumption of bread at 206,788,000 pounds, we shall find the consump tion of each individual in Paris 377 pounds †. At Mexico the consumption of maize is almost equal to that of wheat. The Turkish corn is the food most in request among the Indians. We may apply to it the denomination which Pliny gives to barley (the xgion of Homer ) antiquissimum frumentum; for the zea maize was the

*391 lb. averd. Trans. +406 lb. averd. Trans.

Homer it is believed never uses xgion but xgi. This is an affair of small consequence, to be sure; but since Homer has been referred to, it is just as well to state correctly what is to be found in him. x is to be used in the following passages, and perhaps elsewhere.

...

• Παρα δε σφιν έκασῳ διζυγες ἵπποι
Εσασι, και λευκον ερεπτόμενοι και όλυρας.
Ιπποι δε κρῖ λευκον ερεπτόμενοι και ολύρας
Εςαύτες.

Πυροι τε ζειαι τ' ηδ' ευρυφυες και λευκον.

II. E. 195-6.

II. . 560-1.
Od.-Trans.

only farinaceous gramen cultivated by the Americans before the arrival of the Europeans.

The market of Mexico is richly supplied with eatables, particularly with roots and fruits of every sort, It is a most interesting spectacle, which may be enjoyed every morning at sun rise, to see these provisions, and a great quantity of flowers, brought in by Indians in boats, descending the canals of Istacalco and Chalco. The greater part of these roots is cultivated on the chinampas, called by the Europeans floating gardens. There are two sorts of them, of which the one is moveable, and driven about by the winds, and the other fixed and attached to the shore. The first alone merit the denomination of floating gardens, but their number is daily diminishing.

The ingenious invention of chinampas appears to go back to the end of the 14th century. It had its origin in the extraordinary situation of a people surrounded with enemies, and compelled to live in the midst of a lake little abounding in fish, who were forced to fall upon every means of procuring subsistence. It is even probable that nature herself suggested to the Aztecs the first idea of floating gardens. On the marshy banks of the lakes of Xochimilco and Chalco, the agitated water in the time of the great rises carries away pieces of earth covered with herbs, and bound together by roots. These, floating

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about for a long time as they are driven by the wind, sometimes unite into small islands. tribe of men, too weak to defend themselves on the 'continent, would take advantage of these portions of ground which accident put within their reach, and of which no enemy disputed the property. The oldest chinampas were merely bits of ground joined together artificially, and dug and sown upon by the Aztecs. These floating islands are to be met with in all the zones. I have seen them in the kingdom of Quito, on the river Guayaquil, of eight or nine* metres in length, floating in the midst of the current, and bearing young shoots of bambusa, pistia stratiotes, pontederia, and a number of other vegetables, of which the roots are easily interlaced. I have found also in Italy, in the small lago di aqua solfa of Tivoli, near the hot baths of Agrippa, small islands formed of sulphur, carbonate of lime, and the leaves of the ulva thermalis, which change their place with the smallest breath of wind t.

Simple lumps of earth, carried away from the banks, have given rise to the invention of chinampas; but the industry of the Aztec nation

* 26 or 29 feet. Trans.

+ Floating gardens are, as is well known, also to be met with in the rivers and canals of China, where an excessive population compels the inhabitants to have recourse to every shift for increasing the means of subsistence. Trans.

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