468 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
bright to us by the cordial testimony of kind feeling and 
sympathy from his friends and countrypeople. In the even- 
ing we were pleasantly surprised by a torchlight procession 
in his honor, formed by the German and Swiss residents of 
Rio do Janeiro. The festivities concluded with a serenade 
under our windows by the German club. 
June 4th. When we were in Rio de Janeiro last year, 
Mr. Agassiz was so much occupied with the plans of the 
expedition that he was unable to visit the schools of the 
city, its charitable institutions, and the like. Being unwill- 
ing to leave Brazil without knowing something of the pub- 
lic works in its largest capital, we are now engaged in 
" sight-seeing." This morning we visited the Misericordia 
Hospital. Perhaps it will give a better idea of this institu- 
tion, and of the influences under which it at present exists, 
to speak of it first as it was formerly. Nearly forty years 
ago there was in Rio de Janeiro a hospital called " De la 
Misericordia." Its wards were low, its entries were con- 
fined and close, its staircases steep and narrow. According 
to the accounts of physicians who were medical students 
there in those days, its internal organization was as sordid 
as its general aspect. The floors were wet and dirty, the 
beds wretched, the linen soiled ; and the absence of a system 
of ventilation made itself the more felt on account of the 
want of general cleanliness. The corpses awaited burial in 
a room where the rats held high festival ; and a physician, 
who has since occupied a distinguished position in Rio de Ja- 
neiro, told us that when, as a student, he went to seek there 
the materials for his anatomical studies, he often found life 
stirring in this chamber of the dead, and startled away these 
unseemly visitors. Such, in brief, was the Misericordia Hos- 
pital at the time when Brazil secured her independence. 
