24 On the Aborigines of Brazil, 



suffering at all till just before death. A Portuguese physi- 

 cian, who had lived thirty years among the Indians, assured 

 me "that death overtakes the dying Indian very slowly 

 and gradually. Unconsciousness from serous effusions on 

 the brain occurs very late, and is unusual. The patient 

 in most cases feels a general sinking of all his powers, and 

 if an easy death (euthanasia) consists in awaiting its ap- 

 proach quietly, then the Indian may be said to enjoy it in 

 the fullest degree. He meets this change with an apathetic 

 quiet, which is only equalled by the cool indifference of the 

 spectators. No where is death slower in its approaches ; 

 no where is it met with greater indifference, and no where is 

 less grief or wailing to be observed than around the death- 

 bed of the Indian. Only at the close of the scene, when 

 the last breath has been yielded up, when the body has be- 

 come stiffened, do they reveal, in a burst of shrieks and 

 wailing, their sense of the fearful change, which, in a sort of 

 childish inexperience, they do not seem to have anticipated." 

 The dangerous diseases of the Brazilian savage are then 

 especially chronic, and such as are connected with the 

 assimilative process : obstruction, inflammation and suppu- 

 ration of the mesenteric glands, of the ometum, the liver and 

 of the spleen, dropsy, and slow fever. 



Before the introduction of Europeans into the new world, 

 the Indians died most commonly of these diseases. But 

 since then, small-pox, and according to Indian accounts 

 measles (sarampo) have been added. At present these 

 acute exanthemata make the most fearful ravages among 

 them. But in a description of the endemic diseases, the 

 introduced ones fall into the secondary class. 



The above indicated chronic affections of the assimilative 

 organs have for their predisposing cause the natural con- 

 stitution of the Indian ; but they have also their more imme- 

 diate causes, and among them their diet is especially influen- 

 tial. 



