the digestive and respiratory organs, the former amounting to 4472 or 1.35 per cent. of the population and the latter to 3904 or 1.18 per cent. of the population, and both causing 8376 deaths or 53.81 per cent. of the total number of deaths. Deaths by typhus and typhoid fevers and small-pox, which are supposed to make such great ravages in the City of Mexico, were in reality insignificant, the deaths by the former amounting in that year to 480 or 0.14 per cent. of the population, and the deaths by small-pox were, in the Federal District, embracing the City of Mexico and twenty-three suburban towns, 217 or 0.047 per cent. of the population of the District which is 473,820. Small-pox only attacks the very poor people, and, strange to say, also foreigners, even in case they have been vaccinated in their country, and to be free from small-pox they must be vaccinated in Mexico.

The months of the greatest mortality during the same year were from February to May, and of the smallest the month of August, showing that the unhealthy months are the dry months, that is before the rains set in.

The mortality in the City of Mexico is indeed very large, and it is due principally to two causes, first, the want of proper drainage and sewerage for the refuse of the city, a trouble which is now almost com

Porfirio Díaz, and by the suggestion of General Vicente Riva Palacio, then Secretary of Public Works, the Central Meteorological Observatory was established. From that date up to the present, an uninterrupted hourly observation is regularly taken during the day and the night in the Central Meteorological Observatory. Some magnetical observations have also been made, and the Observatory is now thought of being removed to a more suitable spot.

After the establishment of the Central Meteorological Observatory, some official or private meteorological stations have also been established as follows: Aguascalientes (Instituto del Estado); Guadalajara (Escuela de Ingenieros), observer, Augustín V. Pascal; Guanajuato (Colegio del Estado), observer, Genaro Montes de Oca; León (Escuela Secundaria), observer, Mariano Leal; Mazatlán (Observatorio Astronómico y Meteorológico), observer, N. González; Oaxaca (Colegio del Estado), observer, Dr. A. Domínguez; Pachuca (Instituto del Estado), observer, Dr. N. Andrade; Puebla (Colegio Católico and Colegio del Estado), observers, Priest P. Spina and B. G. González respectively; Querétaro (Colegio Civil), observer, J. B. Alcocer; San Luis Potosí (Instituto del Estado), observer, Dr. G. Barroeta; Toluca (Instituto del Estado), observer, S. Enríquez; Veracruz, observer, G. Baturoni; Zacatecas (Instituto), J. A. Bonilla. Dr. Manuel Andrade, of Huejutla; Dr. Matienzo, of Tampico; Father Pérez, of Morelia; Father Arreola, of Colima; Father Castellanos, of Zapotlán; Sr. Pascual Borbón, of Tacámbaro, are enlightened observers to whom the Central Meteorological Observatory is indebted for their valuable co-operation, and also to the telegraph operators of the "Telegraph system," who send, daily, some weather observations to this office.

The staff of the Central Meteorological Observatory is now as follows: Director, Mariano Bárcena; Vice-Director, José Zendejas, C. E.; Second Observer, Francisco Toro; Assistants, Rafael Aguilar, Francisco Quiroga, Angel Robelo, José Torres, and J. I. Vázquez.

pletely remedied, and the second, the unhygienic way of living of the poor classes, among whom takes place the largest mortality.

The very large number of still-births which occurred in the City of Mexico in 1896, almost exclusively among the poor classes, shows the little care that the poor women take of themselves, and is enough to explain the present large mortality.

RAILWAYS.

For many years the government earnestly endeavored to further the construction of railroads in Mexico, but the broken surface of the country made the building of these roads very expensive. Until 1873 the means of internal locomotion were mainly limited to a few wagon roads, over which travelled twenty-four regular lines of diligences, under one management; and bridle-paths from the central plateau over the sierras and terrace lands down to a few points on both coasts. In 1854 the first railroad was finished, connecting the City of Mexico with Guadalupe, about three miles in length, and another from Veracruz to Tejeria towards the City of Mexico about twelve miles in length; these being the only railroads that were built, up to 1861. During the French Intervention the French army extended the Tejeria road to Paso del Macho, about thirty-five miles further, to the foot of the mountain, so as to be able to transport their army, with the shortest delay possible, out of the yellow-fever zone, toward the central plateau ; and an English Company, which had a grant for a road from the City of Mexico to Veracruz, which was supposed at the time to be the only one that could be built in Mexico, extended the Guadalupe road to Apizaco in the direction of Veracruz and not far from Puebla.

No construction of consequence was done immediately after the French Intervention, because the country was generally in a disturbed condition, although several efforts were made in that direction by President Juarez, under whose administration a new and very liberal grant was given to the Veracruz railway company. The Veracruz road was finished in 1873, during Señor Lerdo de Tejada's Presidency, and when General Diaz became President in 1876 he earnestly promoted railroad building; and we now have two trunk lines connecting the City of Mexico with the United States-the Mexican Central to El Paso, Texas, with a branch from San Luis Potosi to the port of Tampico, and another from Irapuato to Guadalajara, which has recently been extended to Ameca, towards the Pacific; and the Mexican National to Laredo, Texas, with several branches. Another trunk line from Eagle Pass to Torreon and Durango, which it is intended shall finally reach the Pacific, has also been built by Mr. C. P. Huntington and his associates. There is besides a line from Nogales to Guaymas, built and owned by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé

Company; and these four lines connect us with the main systems of the United States, our lines being in fact extensions of the United States railway system.

We have now two lines from the City of Mexico to Veracruz, the old Veracruz road passing by Orizaba, and the Interoceanic, which runs from Veracruz by Jalapa and the City of Mexico and is intended to reach the Pacific. All of our roads, excepting the one built by Mr. Huntington, have had large subsidies paid by the Mexican Government, and in one case, that of the Veracruz railroad, the subsidy paid. was $560,000 per year, for twenty-eight years, or about $57,471 per English mile, although the average subsidy per mile, according to President Diaz's report, dated November 30, 1896, is $14,380.

The Tehuantepec railway, running from Coatzacoalcos on the Gulf of Mexico to Salina Cruz on the Pacific, about one hundred and thirty miles in length, has been built at great expense and at a great sacrifice by the Mexican Government. I published in the Engineering Magazine for March, 1894,' an article stating the different efforts made by the Mexican Government to have that road built, and the advantages that we expected from it as a highway of trade between the Atlantic and the Pacific. The Mexican Government has recently made a contract with Messrs. E. Weetman, Pearson & Son, of London, for the building of good harbors at both ends of the road, and when that is accomplished we expect that a great deal of eastern trade will pass through Tehuantepec.

With the exception of the Tehuantepec road, we have not yet any road running from the Atlantic to the Pacific, although several are in process of construction. The descent of the mountains is on the Pacific slope a great deal more difficult than on the Gulf coast, where the large centres of population are located near the Gulf, and this explains why none of the roads have so far been able to reach the Pacific Ocean.

Our railway system extends now, in the direction of Guatemala, as far as the city of Oaxaca, where we are only about five hundred miles away from our frontier with Guatemala. In other directions, our system reaches the principal cities and commercial and mining centres of the country.

The total mileage of railway in 1895 was 6989 English miles. President Diaz, in his above mentioned report gives, the total mileage. of railways in Mexico as 11,469 kilometres or 7126 miles; and in his message to Congress on April 1, 1897, he stated that the railway mileage had been increased by 238 kilometres 550 metres, finished and received by the Government, and 248 kilometres built, but not yet received officially, making a total mileage of 11,955 kilometres 550 metres, or 7.429 miles.

1 This paper will appear in this volume.

President Diaz's Railway Policy.-President Diaz deserves a great deal of credit for his efforts to promote in Mexico, material improvements, and especially in railroad building. When he came into power, in 1877, public opinion was very much divided as to the policy of allowing citizens of the United States to develop the resources of the country by building railroads, working mines, etc. Our experience of what took place in consequence of the liberal grants given by Mexico to Texan colonists made many fear that a repetition of that liberal policy might endanger the future of the country by giving a foothold in it to citizens of the United States who might afterward, if circumstances favored them, attempt to repeat the case of Texas. President Lerdo de Tejada seemed to share such fears judging by his policy in this regard. But President Diaz, as a broad-minded and patriotic statesman, believed that the best interest of the country required its material development, and that it would not be advisible to discriminate against citizens of the United States, as that country was more interested than any other, on account of its contiguity to Mexico, in developing the resources of our country by building an extensive system of railways, and would, therefore, be more ready than any other to assist in building them. He trusted, at the same time, that when the resources of the country should be more fully developed, it would become so strong as to be beyond reach of the temptation by foreign states or individuals. The results of the work done in Mexico so far show that General Diaz acted wisely, and proved himself equal to the task before him.

Many in Mexico, and myself among the number, thought that, as the railroads were such lucrative enterprises, especially in a country endowed with so many natural elements of wealth as Mexico, it would not be judicious to give their promoters any pecuniary assistance, in the shape of subsidies or otherwise, the more so as the finances of the country were then in a critical condition, and it would not be wise to increase its burdens by large pecuniary subsidies in aid of private enterprises. My opinion in this case was based mainly on what I had seen in the United States, namely: that long lines of railways are built in this country without any pecuniary assistance from the Government, and that when the Government subsidized any one line it became a source of great dissatisfaction and very unpleasant questions, which are yet unsettled. We feared also that such large subsidies as were asked by the railway promoters would amount in the end to so large a sum as to make it impossible for Mexico to pay it, discrediting the country. But in this case General Diaz's view seems to have been the right one, in so far as that it afforded a great inducement for the immediate building of large trunk lines of railways, which, without subsidy, might have been delayed for several years. He thought it

worth while to spend large sums of money for the purpose of having railways built without delay, rather than trust to the fluctuations of confidence and credit in the foreign exchanges, that would enable the prospective companies to obtain the funds necessary to build their roads, trusting, at the same time, that the material development of the country promoted by the railroads would yield revenue enough to pay all the subsidies granted. Fortunately all railroad subsidies contracted by Mexico have been punctually paid, and their amount forms now a large item of our national debt. To pay some of them the mistake was made of negotiating a sterling loan on Europe, to pay a silver debt; but even in that way the transaction is not altogether a bad

one.

General Diaz's policy was to give a railway subsidy to anybody asking for it without investigating the responsibility of the concern, with the idea that if the road was built the country would get the benefit of the same, and if it was not built nothing would be lost, as there was in all grants, a clause to the effect that if no building was done within a given time, the grant should by that mere fact be forfeited, the forfeiture to be declared by the Administration.

The system of subsidizing railways has a great many drawbacks, but at the same time commands some decided advantages, like giving the government the strict supervision over the roads who have to submit to it for its approval, tariffs for freights and passengers, the free carrying of the mails, the duty of the company to present to the government a yearly statement of its traffic, receipts, etc., and other similar advantages. In all grants to subsidized railroads there is a stipulation that at the end of ninety-nine years the road-bed would revert to the Mexican government.

President Diaz's Statistics on Mexican Railways.-Before I close this chapter I think it will not be out of place to quote some remarks of President Diaz concerning our Mexican railroads, which occur in his above-mentioned report.

"In 1875 we had 578 kilometres 285 metres of railway, in 1885 we had 5915 kilometres, in 1886, 6018 kilometres, in November, 1888, 7940 kilometres, in June, 1892, 10,233, and including the tramways and other local and private lines, the amount was 11,067 kilometres; in September, 1894, we had 11,100 kilometres; in April, 1896, 11,165 kilometres, and now we have 11,469 kilometres.

"We stand first in railroad building of all the Latin-American countries. During the years 1877 to 1892 Mexico built more railroads than any other Latin-American State, being 11,165 kilometres; the Argentine Republic takes the second place, with 8108 kilometres, and Brazil the third, with 6193 kilometres, built during the years mentioned. The average number of kilometres built per annum in Mexico during this period was 689, the maximum having been reached in