12 On the Aborigines of Brazil. 



tic strength. I have, however, on other occasions observed, 

 that he often breaks out into profuse perspiration, when 

 under the influence of any strong mental emotions. When 

 he is frightened or startled, large drops of sweat stand on 

 the forehead of the savage, who is otherwise so immoveable. 

 It is as if he were suddenly attacked with a colliquation. 

 And this peculiarity, which no traveller has remarked, so far 

 as I know, harmonises with a mental trait, which especially 

 characterises the American, I mean that sudden prostration of 

 mind, that helpless despair, as soon as the one-sided tension 

 of his mind, which is only maintained under a few condi- 

 tions, is relaxed. For similar reasons he is often covered 

 with a profusion of perspiration, when employed in work to 

 which he is not accustomed, or which he dislikes, and then 

 he ascribes the little progress he makes in it, to sudden ill- 

 ness or to witchcraft. 



Small excitability of the Circulation. 



The deficiency of perspiration in the Indian is obviously 

 connected with the proportionately small excitability of the 

 heart and large vessels, and perhaps even with a relatively 

 smaller mass of blood. I cannot bring forward any direct 

 experiments on this subject, but I may mention what many 

 physicians in Brazil have assured me of, that the abori- 

 gines of that country possess less blood than the negro or the 

 white man, and that they are more weakened by a compara- 

 tively small loss of blood.* One of the best observers of 

 the habits of the North American Indians, Dr. Rush, re- 

 marks, that as compared with Europeans, their women 

 have but a slight menstruation. Azara has given the same 

 out regarding the women of the Charruas and Guaranis, 

 and I can, from the accounts given me, say it of the women 

 of Brazil. The catamenia seldom last longer than three 



* This is notoriously the case with natives of Hindostan. — TV. 



