\52 On the Aborigines of Brazil. 



for a long time over the continent, or when north-east winds 

 suddenly change to the south-west. At such times catarrhal 

 fevers often occur, which are very dangerous to children, 

 and often kill them with symptoms of suffocation : a bad 

 kind of influenza. The Indians along the coast of the 

 eastern provinces often suffer from such sudden changes of 

 wind, and from the cold sea breeze; and Dr. Paiva of 

 Bahia assured me, that the fresh east winds, which there 

 serve to invigorate Europeans and white men in general, and 

 indeed in the neighbourhood of the sea are considered bene- 

 ficial in incipient phthisis, act unfavourably on the Indian 

 population. 



While the Indian is by such influences easily exposed to 

 catarrhal complaints, he suffers from rheumatic ones in a much 

 less degree. The latter, which have their seat chiefly in the 

 serous membranes, and the muscles, appear to have less 

 foundation in the constitution of the Indian than in that of the 

 white and black races. No doubt by catching cold, and by 

 exposure to draughts of air after full meals, or by passing the 

 night in damp forests, violent pains in the limbs (called Curi- 

 mentos by the Portuguese) are often produced. But these 

 darting, tearing or lancinating pains, which often take away 

 the free use of the limbs, and in a few hours render a heal- 

 thy man stiff and motionless, frequently attain such a height, 

 as to become dangerous to life, and require the most careful 

 treatment by powerful diaphoretic and anti-spasmodic medi- 

 cines, and at times by free venesection. They are especially 

 common about full-moon, and, in the neighbourhood of the 

 sea, about the time of spring tides, are aggravated at night, 

 and often interfere with the liver and nerves of the ab- 

 domen, apparently by gouty metastasis. So far however as 

 I know, these rheumatic affections are rare among Indians. 

 The insensitive pituitous constitution of the red man seems 

 to predispose much less to rheumatic than to catarrhal 

 affections, the latter characterised by abundant secretions. 



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