GENERAL IMPRESSIONS OF BRAZIL. 499 
studies. The instruction in both is thorough, though per- 
haps limited ; at least I felt that, in the former, in which 
my own studies have prepared me to judge, those acces- 
sory branches which, after all, lie at the foundation of a 
superior medical education, are either wanting or are 
taught very imperfectly. Neither zoology, comparative 
anatomy, botany, physics, nor chemistry is allowed suf- 
ficient weight in the medical schools. The education is 
one rather of books than of facts. Indeed, as long as the 
prejudice against manual labor of all kinds exists in Brazil, 
practical instruction will be deficient ; as long as students 
of nature think it unbecoming a gentleman to handle his 
own specimens, to carry his own geological hammer, to 
make his own scientific preparations, he will remain a mere 
dilettante in investigation. He may be very familiar with 
recorded facts, but he will make no original researches. On 
this account, and on account of their personal indolence, 
field studies are foreign to Brazilian habits. Surrounded as 
they are by a nature rich beyond comparison, their natural- 
ists are theoretical rather than practical. They know more 
of the bibliography of foreign science than of the wonder- 
ful fauna and flora with which they are surrounded. 
Of the schools and colleges in Rio de Janeiro I have more 
right to judge than of those above mentioned. Several of 
them are excellent. The Ecole Centrale deserves a special 
notice. It corresponds to what we call a scientific school, 
and nowhere in Brazil have I seen an educational institu- 
tion where improved methods of teaching were so highly 
appreciated and so generally adopted. The courses of 
mathematics, chemistry, physics, and the natural sciences 
are comprehensive and thorough. And yet even in this 
institution I was struck with the scantiness of means for 
