INTERIOR OF A DOCTOR’S HOUSE.
Facsimile of a miniature from the Epistre de Othea, by Christine de Pisan. (Fifteenth century MS. in Burgundy Library, Brussels.)

[Face p. 340

CHAPTER IX.
MEDICINE IN ANCIENT MEXICO AND PERU.

Hospitals in Mexico.—Anatomy and Human Sacrifices.—Midwives as Spiritual Mothers.—Circumcision.—Peru.—Discovery of Cinchona Bark.

Little or nothing is known of the ancient history of Mexico and Peru. Mexico, anciently called Anahuac, was probably conquered by the Aztecs, who founded the city of Mexico about 1325. It was discovered in 1517. Peru was long governed by the Incas, said to be descended from Manco Capac, who ruled in the eleventh century. It was explored and conquered by Pizarro, 1524-1533.

For the purposes of this work the history of these countries dates from the time of their discovery, as the Spaniards in their blind fanaticism destroyed most of their literature. Don Juan de Zumarraga was one of the darkeners of human intelligence; he diligently collected all the Mexican manuscripts, especially from Tezcuco, the literary capital of the Mexican empire, and burned them in one great bonfire in the market-place of Tlatelolco.[825]

Las Casas says that there were public hospitals in the cities of Mexico, Tlascala, and Cholula, expressly endowed for the relief of the sick. As surgeons attended the Mexican armies, it is evident that they had attained some skill in medicine and surgery. They used the temazcalli, or vapour-bath, practised bleeding, and knew the medicinal properties of many herbs. They professed to have learned this wisdom from their ancestors, the Tultecas, whose knowledge of chemistry they likewise extolled. As human sacrifices were of daily occurrence in the city of Mexico, they must have acquired some knowledge of anatomy, which would assist them in the practice of surgery.[826]

Midwives were treated by the ancient Mexicans with great deference. They were termed “spiritual mothers,” and were believed to be under the immediate inspiration of the god Tezcatlipoca. Aglio says that the treatment of lying-in women was very similar to that among the Jews.[827]

The ancient Mexicans practised circumcision, and venerated the Tequepatl, or flint knife, with which the rite was performed.[828]