154 On the Aborigines of Brazil. 



sufferer, when he remembers the effects of the gnat on the 

 uncovered portions of his own body. 



It fastens on his skin, and raises the epidermis immediate- 

 ly into a vesicle, into which is poured a drop of blood, which 

 then dries up, so that by the third day it can be removed 

 by a needle like a dried-up pustule. The insect, which 

 only stings in the light of the sun, causes no pain when it 

 begins to suck. But afterwards a burning itching sets in, 

 which is quite disproportioned to the number of stings, and 

 drives the European, unaccustomed to it, almost mad, while 

 the Indian bears it with placid equanimity. The constitution 

 often sympathises. Feverishness, loss of appetite, headache 

 and swelling of the inguinal glands set in, and in unfavour- 

 able cases frequently end in suppuration, but more commonly 

 in resolution after a few days. This piera must, from its 

 general diffusion over the greatest part of Brazil, and from 

 the simultaneous epidemic attacks which it makes in whole 

 districts, be considered one of the peculiar diseases of these 

 lands.* 



But besides it, the Indians are subject to various other 

 skin diseases ; among the most common, is a chronic painless 

 psoriasis, in the Tupi language, Curuba (or when it occurs in 

 animals Pyruca) which attacks chiefly the joints of Indians 

 living in the plains ; and the face, the head, and the feet of 

 those who inhabit forests. It is remarked in general, that 

 such eruptions take on moist forms among the inhabitants 

 of woods, and drier ones among those of plains. I have ob- 

 served a quite peculiar disease, (which must be reckoned a 

 kind of ichthyois,) among Indians of the race of Puru-Purus. 

 The whole body appeared studded with irregular, generally 

 round, isolated or confluent blackish spots of various sizes, 

 which to the hand gave the feeling of slight indurations 

 of the skin, and did not yield any cutaneous discharge, 



* Musquitoes are troublesome enough to new arrivals in this country, and often 

 cause irritative fever.— Tr. 



