16 On the Aborigines of Brazil. 



wastes away for months, until he is seized with universal 

 dropsy, or with a galloping consumption, and is removed from 

 a state of dependence and misery, which he seems to have 

 felt much more deeply, than the other.* 



Several other facts might be adduced to prove the 

 especial weakness and inactivity of the nutritive system of 

 the Indian. One instance of it is, the indolence of wounds 

 and ulcers, which he often carries about for a long time, 

 in a torpid state, especially ulcers of the legs, without any 

 evident influence on his general health. 



Passiveness of Nervous System. 

 Such a condition of the nutritive is only compatible with 

 an unexcitable indolent one of the nervous system, and we 

 must therefore set down as the second physical characteristic 

 of the Indian, a remarkable passiveness and dullness of the 

 nervous system. That intimate union of all organic actions 

 among themselves, and with the higher intellectual life, 

 which is one of the most important peculiarities of the more 

 finely-organised man, is not found here in the same degree 

 as in the negro, not to mention the Caucasian. All the in- 

 dividual powers of mind and body lie in a state of separate 

 passiveness, unconnected with each other. All acts take 

 place more slowly; all sympathies are more one-sided and 

 weaker; all antagonisms less strongly marked. 



Longevity. 

 The foregoing peculiarities naturally prepare us for the 

 same longevity of the Brazilian Indians, that is ascribed to 

 Americans in general. It is usually difficult to get any 

 accurate account of the age of an Indian who is in a state 

 of freedom. A few rare events only can be taken, as fixed 

 points in their accounts of the length of certain periods; 



* Nostalgia is common enough among natives of Hindostan.— Tr. 



