202 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



lifting it to place it on the hearse the screws gave way, and 

 the effect on the olfactory nerves along the whole of the 

 road to the cemetery was quite awful. How fearful must 

 have been the shock to the poor man's family who were 

 expecting his speedy return, to hear, instead, of his death, 

 and the painful circumstances connected therewith ! 



It appears to me, from all I have heard, that this fever 

 must be most loathsome to all who have to come in contact 

 with the poor sufferers. But it need not be dangerous, for 

 Mrs. Fairall, the owner of this house, who has lived in Rio 

 twenty years, and kept two boarding-houses in Larangeiras, 

 has had the fever herself, as have also most of her family ; 

 she has nursed very many patients through it, and never 

 lost a case ; so that the doctors are always anxious to get 

 hold of her, if possible, as nurse. 



I received some hints about treatment which I may as 

 well mention, though I hope I shall never have to put them 

 in practice ; but an acquaintance of mine who had the fever 

 very badly in the summer has recovered, and looks in even 

 better health than he was before. It is very important to 

 take the fever in hand in its earliest stages the first two or 

 three days ; the preliminary symptoms are headache, pain 

 in the back, with nausea and feverishness. Begin by 

 taking two tablespoonfuls of castor-oil, and drink iced milk 

 and iced seltzer, or soda-water, ad libitum ; but eat no meat 

 food. The disease is blood-poisoning, and the best medicine 

 is a certain acid. It is very important to keep up the even 

 warmth of bed and to avoid chills. Patients can be cured 

 even when the black vomit has begun, or when putrid 

 blood oozes from their skin ; but it is then a very bad case. 

 However, smallpox is more dreaded than yellow fever ; for 

 though the latter specially attacks Europeans, particularly 

 those who drink, or who are at all afraid of it, among 



