Remarks on the Medical Topography of Callao and Lima. By
G. R. B. Horner, M. D., Fleet Surgeon, Pacific Squadron.
On a fair day, the approach to these celebrated places is highly
picturesque. The Andes are seen to the eastward and behind
them, raising their snow capped summits thousands of feet above
the mountains between the former and the ocean, and though
formed of barren russet ash-like rocks, their sublimity, ruggedness,
and variegation of outline render’ the prospect of them exceed-
ingly striking. On approaching more nearly from the sea, we
perceive to the south east, for miles, a high perpendicular and
rocky shore, constantly washed and beaten down by the surf, and
directly eastward the rugged precipitous island of del Fronton.
Separated from this by a narrow strait is that of St. Lorenzo,
which rises 1280 feet above the ocean, and forms the western side
of the harbor of Callao. Between the two islands are perceptible
the ships at anchor there, displaying their masts and banners
above the low, sandy, pebbly peninsula, on which stand Callao and
its immense castle. Between the western end of this peninsula
and St. Lorenzo is the Bouqueron passage, but it is a dangerous
one, from its rocks, shoals, and narrowness, and vessels generally
run into the harbor through the northern entrance, between the
upper end of St. Lorenzo and the main land. In doing this we
have a magnificent view of the mountains, harbor, islands, Callao,
Lima, and the country between it and the water, which though
only in part cultivated, displays a luxuriance of vegetation, much
in contrast with the barrenness of the mountains. As soon as a
ship anchors she is surrounded by flocks of birds, feeding upon
whatever they can gather upon or beneath the water. From
morning to night, gulls, cormorants, ducks, and dark, bag-throated
pelicans continue to swim, dive, and skim over the surface. Such
flocks of them I have never seen in any other part of the world.
But Callao presents little of interest; it contains only about 5000
souls, has irregular, mostly narrow, illy paved streets, and is built
either of sunburnt bricks or adobes, plastered over, or of posts and
reeds smeared over with mud. Recollection of the awful earth-
quake which caused the old town to sink beneath the ocean, and
fear of another such catastrophe, prevent any attempt at style
either in the size or structure of the houses. These are nearly all
one story high, and flat roofed. The largest have inner courts, some
of which are well painted, quite spacious and handsome. Water is
furnished chiefly from two large bronze fountains, each made of basins
gradually diminishing in size from the lowest to the highest. The
market is in the large square, and is tolerably well supplied with
fruit and vegetables, but fish, flesh, and fowl are not abundant,
and the numerous black vultures perched on the houses and castle
walls, look half famished and disconsolate from the scarcity of
meat thrown away by the inhabitants. The castle occupies about
ten acres of ground, is separated from the town by a moat forty
feet wide, eight or ten deep, and encloses two large round terraces,
a chapel, and barracks, now chiefly used as the custom house.
Between the castle and the point looking towards the Bouqueron
passage, lie the skeletons of the multitude who perished by the
sword, famine, and pestilence during the late civil wars of Peru.
So numerous were the dead, that their bodies were dragged out of
the castle and thrown upon the beach to moulder, or serve for food
to birds and beasts. For an incredible period the air of the town
was tainted with the putrid exhalations. Subsequently and after
the suppression of a mutiny in the garrison—as I was informed by
an eye-witness—160 men were shot, hauled out in carts to a pit
dug out of the town, were thrown within it and consumed with
fire. But at this time the air of Callao is as pure as that of most
similar towns, and though frequently damp from moisture, whole
cargoes of Chilian wheat are kept constantly heaped in vast piles,
upon the space between the town and the long quay erected by
Gen. Miller. The wheat there lies white, clear, and plump for
indefinite periods, though merely a few mats are thrown over it
during the dampest weather. Callao is justly entitled to the ap-
pellation of salubrious, and furnishes little private practice to
physicians, has no public hospitals, and only one private, that of
Dr. Gallagher, of Lima. He pays it daily visits, and has Dr.
Whittingham in constant attendance. The hospital is partly
formed by the old custom house, stands on a declivity, a mile
southeast of Callao, and adjoining the village of Bellavista. The
location of the building is airy, convenient, and commanding.
From it are seen the romantic country back of it, and likewise the
town, harbour, ships, ocean, and the eastern face of Del Fronton
and St. Lorenzo. The hospital has two courts, several rooms for
offices, and three wards, large enough to accommodate fifty
patients, and well ventilated by valves in the skylights over the
middle of the wards. These are parallel to each other, open by
doors into the chief court, are paved with bark, furnished with iron
bedsteads and wool mattresses, and though not kept in the nicest
order, are very comfortable for the poor weather-beaten sailors
who resort to them for health. There were forty-three of them in
the hospital when I visited it, and each one paid $1.50 per day for
board and medical attendance. Officers are charged higher, and
proportionately to their accommodations. The diseases in the
hospital were those most common among seamen. An American
had died in it very recently ; and its walls had been shaken by two
shocks of an earthquake the night before my visit, but they are
thick, only a story high, and cannot be thrown down except by a
very violent shock. We can then with good reason recommend
the hospital to merchant seamen, and in emergencies to those of
any vessels of war, crowded with sick, or having incurable and
contagious, cases, or such as would be benefitted by treatment on
shore. Desertion is the strongest objection to sending men to this
hospital, but that is trifling when we calculate the comfort afforded
the sick, the better chances they would have of being cured, and
the greater certainty of their not contaminating a whole crew by
remaining on board ship.
From Callao to Lima is an inclined plain, six miles wide, rising
gradually from one to the other, at the rate of eighty feet the mile.
Lima then, is nearly five hundred feet ahove the ocean, and stands
at the highest part, upon its eastern border, beneath a bare rugged
ridge of granite. Through a gap of this flows the Rimae, a rapid
mountain stream, rising from the Andes, and fed by their melted
snows. The river runs through the northern end of the city, and
when full is a hundred yards across, but almost all of its water is
diverted from its channel to turn some mills, to supply the Lima-
nians, and irrigate the country below the city. To effect this justly
a commissioner is appointed to direct the "water where wanted, and
by aid of it and the dew the soil produces abundantly, as it is
alluvial and naturally fertile. This is made manifest by its yield-
ing two or three times a year crops of fruits and vegetables.
Among its fruits are limes, lemons, oranges, pineapples, bananas,
guavas, plums, pomegranates, the granadilla; the luscious fruit of
a passion flower, the picaya, a very large legume with black seed
and a sweet frost-like pulp, and the delicious cherimoyer. This is
the fruit of a magnolia, is of a green color exteriorly, white
within, has a scale-like rind, and contains many black seeds buried
in a juicy, very sweet pulp, flavored slightly with strawberry. The
cherimoyer is the most esteemed of Peruvian fruits, is wholesome
and nourishing. It forms a chief article of food to the natives,
and when it is of fullest size, will nearly yield enough nourishment
for a breakfast. Of vegetables the most abundant are pumpkins,
Indian corn, potatoes, cabbages, beans, and yuca, a species of
mandiaca root, like that of Brazil, but used simply as a vegetable,
and not made into farina nor tapioca. An ordinary method of
cooking it, is to strip off its rusty, blackish skin and boil it with
beef, with which it is eaten after soup has been served. The plant
is cultivated in fields, attains a height of five or more feet, has a
palmate leaf, and an irregularly fusiform root from one to two feet
in length. The Limanians can boast of eating the best of pota-
toes, both sweet and common, or, more properly, indigenous as
they were first found in Peru. The finest used are the large deep
purple potatoes, and the small yellow, which are the most savory
of the two kinds, and when well cooked have a delicacy, lightness,
and gusto surpassing those of any other potatoes, not excepting the
sweet of Lima, which are very good. These are generally of a
deep yellow color inside, and differ from ours in shape by being
knotted on the outside. Some of them are so much so that they
resemble a common potato of great size, formed of five or six large
tubers.
Of medicinal plants few are to be found wild or cultivated. The
mountains are too rocky to produce them, the plains and valleys
too much in demand for eatables, to allow them to grow abun-
dantly. But on the banks of the Rimae above the city and near a
mill race on the north side, the palma christi grows spontaneously,
and perennially. Some of the nightshades are also produced, and
among them the most remarkable is the Datura arborea, or Flori-
pondio. It is strongly narcotic, thought dangerous in a bed cham-
ber, attains a great height, and bears a perfectly white lily-like
flower, composed of a single goblet-shaped petal eight inches long,
with an everted margin, terminating in four points an inch or two
in length.
To obtain a perfect view of the city and surrounding country, it
is necessary to clamber to the top of St. Christopher, a mountain
at its northern extremity. It is a part of the ridge mentioned,
stands on the right side of the Rimae, rises seventeen hundred feet
above the sea, and is formed of huge fissured granitic rocks, re-
sembling the lava of Etna. Its summit has two points like the
crater of Vesuvius, and on the highest a conical heap of stones
and lime surmounted by a wooden cross. The ascent is steep,
broken, and in parts slippery and dangerous, but the prospect be-
held after the summit is attained fully compensates for fatigue suf-
fered. Within the prospect are included the Andes, the valley of
the Rimae, the bull circus, the new Alameda; a favorite public
walk; the city, Callao, ocean, and its coast from above St. Lorenzo
to that below Cherillos, the fashionable bathing place of the Lima-
nians. From his airy position the spectator perceives that Lima,
on the south side of the river, is hemmed in by a ditch and wall of
adobes, except along its margin, and that it has rectangular
streets of convenient width, that it abounds in churches and flat
roofed dwellings, rarely more than a story high. But they
occupy a great deal of ground, and have from one to two spacious
courts included within their walls. These are formed of adobes,
much larger than sun burnt bricks, but much smaller than the im-
mense adobes composing the fences of the adjacent fields, for two
of the latter kind, placed one above the other, are sufficiently high
for an ordinary fence. The finest dwellings have very high apart-
ments, opening into one another and • the courts. On the back one
of these are the kitchen and servants’chambers, and on the front those
of the family, and the parlors. These are large, have wooden ceil-
ings, plank or brick floors, and walls covered with paper, tacked
on, as paste will not make it adhere to the adobes forming them.
Chimneys are not used, and none are visible, though fire would be
agreeable during the frequent drizzles which fall night and day,
and are heavy enough to chill the air, make muddy streets and fill
small hollows with water. The drizzles are called dews, but in
the United States would be termed light rains. When they pre-
vail, the Andes are entirely obscured in mist and clouds, and I
have seen Fahrenheit’s thermometer sink to 60° even in the
harbor. But this is more properly to be ascribed to the ever blow-
ing southerly trade winds, than to the dampness of the atmosphere,
or the wide rapid streams from the Rimae, flowing in the middle
of all the principal streets, and gushing from the basins of the
bronze fountain in the great square or pl*aza. This has the vice-
roy’s palace, now the president’s, on one side, the bishbp’s and
cathedral on another, and the two portals or arcades of shops on
the remaining. The cathedral is a vast pile of adobes, lime, and
wood, 245 feet in front, 375 in depth, and contains the remains of
the first viceroy of Peru, Francisco Pizarro, but we will let them
there rest in peace, and speak of the living Limanians. They are
estimated at 85,000 by the last census, and consist of whites,
blacks, mulattoes, Indians, and various admixtures. The officers
of the government, those of the army, and the principal native
families are of Spanish descent, the soldiers, hucksters, many of
the servants, the market people of the city and country, are native
Indians. Indeed in the four battalions composing the garrison, I
did not see one who was not. They are copper colored, short and
stout, rarely over five feet five inches high, often under that, and
have low wide foreheads, black eyes and hair. Their physiognomy
indicates mildness of temper, prudence, and a moderate amount of
intelligence. They and all the other citizens are Roman Catholics,
much addicted to festivals. One occurs besides the Sabbath every
month for ten of the year, and two take place in each of the two
remaining months. Idleness and dissipation are the natural con-
sequences, and during these festivals the lower class of men con-
sume a great quantity of spirit, chiefly pisco, so named from the
town where it is manufactured. It resembles in color and taste
corn whiskey, and is made from the fermented juice of the Peru-
vian grape. Lima has no good schools for extensive education,
and only one medical. This has a full number of Professors, and
eighty students, who have access to four hospitals in a limited
manner. They are the female hospital of Santa Ana, the male one
of St. Andros, the military, and incurable. The three first lie in
the southern quarter of the city, the last is within the north
eastern. They are all built similarly to the dwellings, and do not
require minute description. It may be enough to state that they
have a*single story, are paved with brick, furnished with iron and
plank bedsteads, and are indifferently well ordered.
The best hospital is St. Ana’s. It has four large rooms forming
a cross, with rooms between the limbs. It accommodates over
700 patients, has two courts and a female college adjoining, where
20 girls are educated gratis. St. Andres accommodates 400
patients, and like the military has a guard of soldiers to preserve
order. The hospital of incurables is divided into a male and
female department, with adjoining walls and courts, and contains
altogether 80 patients. They are principally blacks and mulattoes,
afflicted with chronic local disorders, mostly ulcers from leprosy
and chigres, and presenting a most squalid appearance. In the
other hospitals fevers and dysentery were two of the chief disor-
ders. Among the former, intermittent is most common, as it is
prevalent in the city, and has a fruitful source in the dampness of
the houses, as well as in the heavy dews, if not in the exhalations
of the neighboring country, borne over the city walls by the wind
after it has swept across the bed of the Rimae and other low
grounds between Lima and the Pacific. The two diseases above
mentioned are probably the most common among the inhabitants,
particularly the poorer classes who have unwholesome food, live
mostly on fruits and vegetables, and occupy the dampest dwellings.
The pitted faces of some, even of the fair sex, show that small pox
is one of the diseases in the city, and the clumsy gait of some of
the men makes known the existence of elephantiasis. Pulmonary
affections mostly prevail when there is much humidity of the air.
Catarrhs are very prevalent in winter when the city is both damp
and dirty, and it is expressly prejudicial to asthmatics. Hence they
become relieved by going into the country. Such, in fin^e, is the
mortality of Lima from war and disease combined, that in spite of
its many foreign and native physicians and its well filled drug stores,
it is estimated that the whole number of deaths equals that of the
population every seventeen pears. This estimate is extravagant,
but the continuance of the city in precisely the same bounds it has
had for a century, the erection of scarcely a single building in the
year, the limited emigration of the people, the emptiness of the
vast convent of St. Francisco, which forms three hollow squares,
and the dwellings generally not being over crowded, prove the
mortality to be great, and the vaults of the churches, the cells and
graves of the Campo Santo to be abundantly supplied. Neverthe-
less, by preper care a person can live as long in this city as in any
other, and while he lives can enjoy good society, a plentiful table,
and pleasant promenades. He can resort to the mercantile read-
ing room, the public library of 30,000 volumes, and the museum
adjoining, where above the cabinets of animals, birds, beasts,
coins, and Indian curiosities, are seen the full length portraits of
Generals Gomorra, Lamar, and Bolivar, with those of the forty-
five viceroys of Peru, from Pizarro in 1530, down to Laserna, the
last one, who was expelled by the patriots in 1824. The museum
is open gratis every day, except on the Sabbath and during festi-
vals, and every person has the privilege of using the library,
though no one is allowed to take the book away for private pe-
rusal. •	. ,	■■ ■	' • ■