Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution . le land (H. J. Spinden: Yellow Fever—First and Last, Worlds Work, , pp. 169-181, 1921). POPULATION OF ANCIENT AMERICA SPINDEN 455 tions. We must pic-ture the tenuous con-nection between thehemispheres, con-sisting of nomadspassing via Siberiaand Alaska, as in-sufficient for thetransmission of suchpathological organ-isms as might al-ready have attackedthe thicker settle-ments of the OldWorld. Further-more, few gregari-ous animals werebrought under do-mestication inAmerica to provenew sources of ma-levolent infection. T
Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution . le land (H. J. Spinden: Yellow Fever—First and Last, Worlds Work, , pp. 169-181, 1921). POPULATION OF ANCIENT AMERICA SPINDEN 455 tions. We must pic-ture the tenuous con-nection between thehemispheres, con-sisting of nomadspassing via Siberiaand Alaska, as in-sufficient for thetransmission of suchpathological organ-isms as might al-ready have attackedthe thicker settle-ments of the OldWorld. Further-more, few gregari-ous animals werebrought under do-mestication inAmerica to provenew sources of ma-levolent infection. THE TEN PLAGUESOF NEW SPAIN In Mexico theSpaniards strucksharply and deeply,while illusion oftheir divinity andmagic power stillobsessed the aborigi-nal populace. Nev-ertheless, they mighteasily have failed ifreinforcements ofinvisible parasiteshad not come up intime. Between theretreat of NocheTriste and the finaltaking of Tenochti-tlan smallpox foughtmost valiantly on OLD WORLD TIME SCALE A-D. EUROPE EGYPT MESOPOTAMIA CHINA 1500 NEW WORLD PUEBLO MEXICO MAYA PEJ^U. Figure 1.—Chronological and economic diagram of the parallelism be-tween Old and New World civilization which presents in summary formsome of the facts bearing on the question of the population of ancientAmerica. Note that the stratigraphic series of Europe is only carriedback to the horizon of polished Celts. Before this come the Mesolithicand Paleolithic series which are not represented in the New World 456 ANNUAL EEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 2 9 the side of the invaders and finally turned the battle definitely infavor of Christianity. Friar Toribio de Benevente, commonly called Motolinia, arrived atVera Cruz in May, 1524, and his History of the Indians of NewSpain was finished in 1541.* He draws a tremendous picture ofevents and conditions which reduced the native population by com-paring Ten Plagues of New Spain with the biblical Ten Plagues ofEgypt. I can not give the gist of depopulation better than b
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