288 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
deserves the name of prison with the exception of that in 
the capital. And even this one, while it does not possess 
one of the conditions exacted by similar institutions, con- 
tains so disproportionate a number of prisoners of all 
classes, so indiscriminately mingled, that, setting aside the 
other difficulties arising from this association, it is only 
by the mercy of Providence that the jail has not been 
converted into a focus of epidemics during the great heat 
prevailing in this city for a great part of the year. In 
four small rooms, insufficiently ventilated and lighted, are 
assembled forty prisoners (including the sick) of various 
classes and conditions. Without air, without cleanliness, 
almost without room to move in their smothered and damp 
enclosure, these unhappy beings, against all precepts of 
law and humanity, suffer far more than the simple and 
salutary rigor of punishment." These strictures must 
have led to a great amendment, for the prison does not 
now appear to be deficient in light or in ventilation, and 
there is a hospital provided apart for the sick. Some of 
the prisoners, especially those who were there for political 
offences, having been concerned in a recent revolt at Serpa, 
were very heavily ironed ; but, excepting this, there were 
no signs, visible at least to the transient observer, of cruelty 
or neglect. After some remarks on the best modes of re- 
forming these abuses and the means to be employed for 
that object, Dr. Adolfo goes on to speak of the ruinous 
condition of the prisons in other cities of the province. 
" Such is the state of the prison in the town of Teffe 
The edifice in which it is established is an old and crum 
bling house, belonging to the municipality, thatched with 
straw, and so ruinous, that it seemed to me, when I 
visited it, rather like a deserted habitation than like a 
