PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS OF RIO DE JANEIRO. 475 
embroidery of all sorts, artificial flowers and the like. 
Thence we passed to the wards. As in the Misericordia, 
the rooms are very large and high, wainscoted with tiles, 
and opening upon wide corridors, which look out into the 
enclosed gardens. Some of the dormitories have fifteen 
or twenty beds, but many of the sleeping-rooms are 
smaller, it being better, no doubt, to separate the patients 
at night. We saw but little indication of suffering or 
distress among them. There were one or two cases of 
religious melancholy, with the look of fixed, absorbed sad- 
ness characteristic of that form of insanity. We were 
met once or twice by the vacant stare, and heard the 
senseless chatter and laugh always to be found in these 
saddest of all asylums for human suffering. But, on the 
whole, an air of cheerfulness prevailed ; with few excep- 
tions all the patients were occupied, the women with plain 
sewing or embroidery, the men with carpentering, shoe- 
making, or tailoring, making cigars for the use of the 
establishment, or picking over old cordage. The Superior 
told us that occupation was found to be the most efficient 
remedy, and that though work was not compulsory, with 
few exceptions all the patients preferred to share in it. 
The whole service of the house washing, sweeping, wax- 
ing the floors, cleaning the chambers and putting them in 
order is performed by them. Sunday is found to be the 
most difficult day, because much of the ordinary occupation 
is suspended, and the patients become unruly in proportion 
as they are unemployed. From these apartments, where all 
were busy and comparatively quiet, we passed to a corridor 
enclosing a large court, where some of the lunatics, too rest- 
less for employment, were walking about, gesticulating and 
talking loudly. The corridor was lined on its inner side with 
