TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 173 



first was founded by the charitable subscriptions of 

 the citizens, and is under the direction of a council 

 of administration chosen from their body. This 

 building, consisting of two stories, receives, in four 

 principal wards, about two hundred patients, but is 

 capable of accommodating a greater number. The 

 patients are separated into classes, according to 

 their several diseases, and the women are all together 

 in one large ward, to which strangers have no ac- 

 cess. Among the patients are a few lunatics ; 

 but their number is extremely small in this coun- 

 try, where the cultivation of the intellectual facul- 

 ties has not yet made any considerable progress. 

 An establishment for poor children is also united 

 with this hospital. 



The Royal Military Hospital occupies the build- 

 ings of the ancient Jesuits' college, situated on an 

 eminence. It is calculated for the reception of 

 some hundred male patients, and is conducted with 

 more order, and more attention to cleanliness, than 

 the city hospital. The roofing of the building, with 

 light shingles, is peculiarly adapted to so hot a 

 climate, a free draught of air being promoted by 

 this arrangement, as much as by the use of ven- 

 tilators. In both these hospitals, the greater part 

 of the medicines are made up according to certain 

 customary recipes expressly introduced for them. 

 Besides these recipes, use is also made of the 

 Pharmacopoeia of Lisbon, and partly also of those 



