It was a common thing to see children covered with the eruption of this disease watching, or joining in, the play of groups of healthy little ones.
The clothing of people who had died of smallpox was handed on to other members of the family, sometimes without even being washed.

The victims of the disease often immersed themselves in cold water when their fever was high, and paid the penalty for their ignorance with their lives.
The average Spaniard was a firm believer in the noxiousness of night air, which he said produced _paludismo_.

[499] Most Filipinos were afraid of an imaginary spirit, devil or mythical creature known as _asuang_, and closed their windows and doors after dark as a protection against it.

Thus it came about that in a country where fresh air is especially necessary at night no one got it.
Tuberculosis was dreadfully common, and its victims were conveying it to others without let or hindrance.
A distressingly large percentage of native-born infants died before reaching one year of age on account of infection at birth, insufficient clothing, or improper food.

I have many times seen a native mother thrust boiled rice into the mouth of a child only a few days old, and I have seen babies taught to smoke tobacco before they could walk.
Before our party left the islands in 1888, cholera had broken out at a remote and isolated place.