Diseases on the Amazons. 595 



action in the economy. I am told that parents often en- 

 courage their children to smoke tobacco at the early age 

 of five years, as it seems, they say, to do away with the 

 fondness for dirt-eating. They have never been able to 

 give me a reason for this fact ; nor do I find myself able 

 to solve the question, except, possibly, on the ground of an 

 anaesthetic effect on the palate, and depression of desire to 

 eat any thing. The habit of dirt-eating obtains also large- 

 ly in some of the Piedmont districts, many of the children 

 and women from Moyobaniba and Tarapoto, and other 

 towns, coming here with this practice deeply rooted. 



Dysentery, as an original disease on the Maranon, is of 

 comparatively rare occurrence. It more generally appears 

 as a sequela of the geophagy. If original, it does not 

 seem intractable, and is to be encountered oftener among 

 the children or foreigners. On the Lower Amazons, and 

 on the Brazil coast generally, its rank, according to some 

 observers, is next after phthisis. The moderate elevation 

 of the thermometer in this tropical section compared with 

 it on the coast, and the greater uniformity of the average 

 annual heat (sudden changes, as before stated, being rare, 

 the sparsely-settled nature of the villages not giving rise 

 to such excesses, from want of material wherewith to dis- ■ 

 turb the system), probably may be considered as operating 

 causes of its rarity; though, as yet, the difference in 

 amount of population on the Upper and Lower Amazons 

 makes one liable not to take into consideration relative 

 numbers in estimating frequency of disease. The total 

 want of statistical information in this country makes the 

 question of healthfulness somewhat uncertain, as yet. 

 There is not in the dysentery itself any thing particular 

 to notice as regards symptoms or treatment. I have as 

 yet seen no fatal case where the affection was uncompli- 

 cated with dirt-eating, or extreme imprudence in dissipa- 



