24 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



the Portuguese side, had its head-quarters here, 

 the geographical position of this city was accurately 

 determined by Oliveira Barbosa to be as follows : 

 33° 24' 30" longitude from Ferro, and 23° 33' 30" 

 south latitude (48° 59' 25" west longitude of Paris, 

 and 23° 33' 10" south latitude, according to the 

 Board of Longitude). Observations on the va- 

 riation of the magnetic needle were made both 

 here and in other parts of the province, several of 

 the results of which were communicated to us at 

 Rio by General da Franca e Horta, formerly go- 

 vernor of the capitania. In the year I788 the 

 variation at S. Paulo was 7° 15' N.E. We are 

 indebted to the Jesuits for the first observations of 

 this kind, as well as the first determinations of 

 latitude. * 



The character of diseases at S. Paulo is remark- 

 ably different from that at Rio, which may arise 

 from the difference both in the constitution of the 

 inhabitants and in the climate. We found here, 

 more fi-equently than in the northern provinces, 

 disposition to rheumatism and inflammation, espe- 

 cially of the eyes, breast and throat, and in con- 

 sequence of them pulmonary and trachgeal con- 

 sumptions, blennorhoea of the eye-lids, &c. Gastric 



* According to these observations the variation is at Itanhaim 

 7° 25' ; at Santos 6" 50' ; at Ubattiba 6° 30' ; at S. Sebastiao 

 and in Villa Bella da Princesa 6° 45' ; at S. Vicente 6° 50' ; at 

 Cananea 7° 57'; Guaratyba 8° 30': at Iguape 7° 30'; at Pa- 

 ranagua 8° 8'. 



