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 de 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 

 &quot; sight-seeing.&quot; This morning we visited the Misericordia 

 Hospital. Perhaps it will give a bettor 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 &quot; De la 

 Misericordia.&quot; 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. 



