OUR LIFE AT RIO DE JANEIRO. 203 



Brazilians it generally only affects those lately come from 

 up country. There is an antidote daily advertised in the 

 paper called " Anti- Yellow Fever Vaccination ;" but I hear 

 it is all a farce,* and that Pasteur's theory has not been 

 worked out on this subject. Some such discovery is 

 urgently needed, as there is no doubt the disease is a fear- 

 ful scourge. A Dutch captain arriving in port when the 

 fever was at its height was very nervous about it, and 

 within three days the captain, his wife, nephew, and one or 

 two others were dead ; all the crew went off, and it was 

 some time before a captain and crew could be found to 

 take the ship back to Holland.f 



I am told that Dr. Bento (Brazilian) and Dr. King 

 (English) are the best yellow fever doctors ; the latter has 

 spent about twenty years in Brazil, and has a large 

 practice, but he informed me the other day that there is 

 still room for two good English surgeons in Rio. 



* " It is worthy of note that Dr. Maximiano Carvalho announces in the 

 Journal de Commercio, of the I3th inst., that some of the recent yellow fever 

 cases are those of persons vaccinated with Dr. Freire's microbios." Rio News, 

 January 15, 1884. 



t In 1882 the fever was very severe. From January to March, 10,000 or 

 12,000 died from it ; sometimes 150 per diem. 



