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PASSAGE 32
* Increasingly, historians are blaming diseases imported from the Old World for the staggering disparity between the indigenous population of America in 1492— new esti-
mates of which soar as high as 100 million, or approxi-
5) mately one-sixth of the human race at that time—and the few million full-blooded Native Americans alive at the end of the nineteenth century. There is no doubt that chronic disease was an important factor in the precipi- tous decline, and it is highly probable that the greatest
10)
killer was epidemic disease, especially as manifested in virgin-soil epidemics.
* Virgin-soil epidemics are those in which the popula- tions at risk have had no previous contact with the diseases that strike them and are therefore immunologi-
15)
cally almost defenseless. That virgin-soil epidemics were important in American history is strongly indicated by evidence that a number of dangerous maladies—small- pox, measles, malaria, yellow fever, and undoubtedly several more—were unknown in the pre-Columbian
20) New World. The effects of their sudden introduction are demonstrated in the early chronicles of America, which contain reports of horrendous epidemics and steep population declines, confirmed in many cases by recent quantitative analyses of Spanish tribute records and
25) other sources. The evidence provided by the documents of British and French colonies is not as definitive because the conquerors of those areas did not establish permanent settlements and begin to keep continuous records until the seventeenth century, by which time the
30) worst epidemics had probably already taken place. Furthermore, the British tended to drive the native populations away, rather than enslaving them as the Spaniards did, so that the epidemics of British America occurred beyond the range of colonists' direct
35) observation.
* Even so, the surviving records of North America do contain references to deadly epidemics among the indige- nous population. In 1616-1619 an epidemic, possibly of bubonic or pneumonic plague, swept coastal New
40) England, killing as many as nine out of ten. During the 1630's smallpox, the disease most fatal to the Native American people, eliminated half the population of the Huron and Iroquois confederations. In the 1820's fever devastated the people of the Columbia River area,
45) killing eight out of ten of them.
* Unfortunately, the documentation of these and other epidemics is slight and frequently unreliable, and it is ecessary to supplement what little we do know with evidence from recent epidemics among Native Ameri-
50) cans. For example, in 1952 an outbreak of measles among the Native American inhabitants of Ungava Bay. Quebec, affected 99 percent of the population and killed 7 percent, even though some had the benefit of modern medicine. Cases such as this demonstrate that even
55)
diseases that are not normally fatal can have devastating consequences when they strike an immunologically defenseless community.
4. Which of the following can be inferred from the passageconcerning Spanish tribute records?
(A) They mention only epidemics of smallpox.
(B) They were instituted in 1492.
(C) They were being kept prior to the seventeenthcentury.
(D) They provide quantitative and qualitative evidenceabout Native American populations.
(E) They prove that certain diseases were unknown inthe pre-Columbian New World. c 8. Which of the following, if newly discovered, wouldmost seriously weaken the author's argumentconcerning the importance of virgin-soil epidemics inthe depopulation of Native Americans?
(A) Evidence setting the pre-Columbian population ofthe New World at only 80 million
(B) Spanish tribute records showing periodic populationfluctuations
(C) Documents detailing sophisticated Native Americanmedical procedures
(D) Fossils indicating Native American cortact withsmallpox prior to 1492
(E) Remains of French settlements dating back to thesixteenth century d | 
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发表于 2006-6-28 20:59:00
