TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 169 



remarkable that it is only a few years ago that it 

 was first known, or at least first distinguished from 

 other similar disorders in this new world, which is 

 now frequented by many whites. Instances are 

 mentioned in which a cure has been effected by 

 a prompt application of dulcified mercury. Re- 

 peated experience in our own persons has con- 

 vinced us, how suitable this medicine is to the 

 climate of the tropics in general, and we therefore 

 advise the traveller to make use of it on all oc- 

 casions, where it is desired to produce a specific 

 effect on the lymphatic system, the action of which 

 is here checked by so many injurious influences ; 

 nay, on many occasions it serves as a very welcome 

 prophylactic, as it checks slight disposition to 

 disease. An excellent succedaneum for it, espe- 

 cially in diseases of the liver so frequent here, is 

 sea-bathing, which acts equally on the nervous, 

 muscular, and lymphatic systems. Rheumatism 

 and catarrh are likewise of frequent occurrence 

 here, where the changes of the temperature are 

 greater than in the more northern provinces of 

 Brazil. 



The syphilis, which is so prevalent throughout 

 the torrid zone, is not unusual at Rio de Janeiro. 

 The ravages of this disease, which, as we afterwards 

 convinced ourselves, is foreign to the original in- 

 habitants of America, are not so dreadful and 

 extensive here as they have been in colder climates, 

 for instance, in the islands in the South Sea, but the 



