The Peninsula of Yucatan; Medical, Biological, Meteorological and Sociological Studies

Washington: Carnegie Institute of Washington, 1933. Thick Quarto. Portrait frontispiece. xvii, 576 pages. Illustrated with photographic images and maps. Yucatan Medical surveys and other data.--Surveys in 1931 by the Third Yucatan Medical Expedition. The purpose of this work was to discuss the medical problems of the peninsula of Yucatan. The beautiful photographs of Chichen Itza add great interest to the work and show us that the Mexican Government has gone to considerable trouble and expense in restoring ancient places. There is an anthropological survey dealing with physical characters, costumes, food, industries, religions, and so on. The Government of Yucatan has a chapter to itself, and then there is an account of each of the larger communities. The last part of the work deals with the natural history of Yucatan and the influences of man upon its vegetation. The medical section has so much physiological matter that it must be of very special value to any student of social problems, especially as it is full of statistics. One of the perennial problems about Yucatan is concerning the reasons why the Maya population moved from the south to the north of this region in the 7th century A.D., leaving ruined cities with highly developed artistic work, and founding a new home round about Chichen Itza. A good but fragile copy bound in printed stiff paper wraps lettered in black, light soiling, wear to spine ends and split to upper joint at foot,