The Aborigines of Brazil. 161 



of oppression in the hypochondria, and a slight remittent 

 fever, up to the most violent inflammation and its worst ter- 

 minations, this disease presents an uninterrupted chain of 

 the most varied phaenomena, according to the individuals, the 

 locality, the accidental complications and the duration of 

 the disease. It involves the most different organs, and de- 

 velopes itself in the most different ways accordingly. While 

 its beginning can often be checked by a few purgatives 

 and a careful diet, in its higher degrees it defies the skill 

 of the physician ; and the great mortality of the Indians, 

 who know no remedy with which to protect themselves, is 

 chiefly to be ascribed to this disease. The (Ba90s) fever cakes 

 which appear as the most common result of this disease, are 

 so common in many districts, that one cannot help considering 

 it as endemic, as goitre is in others.* The whole of my boat's 

 crew on the Yupura was often afflicted with liver cakes of 

 such a size, that they were perceptible to the eye without the 

 aid of feeling ; the whole aspect of these patients betrayed 

 at first sight the deeply rooted nature of the malady. They 

 were pale, ill coloured, gloomy, listless and without appetite, 

 and shewed the greatest repugnance to their ordinary diet 

 dried fish, salt-meat, beans, and Mandiocca flour) and an in- 

 creased craving for brandy. It was melancholy for me to be 

 scarcely able to do any thing for the wretched condition of 

 these people, who would have required long and careful 

 treatment, and instead of receiving this, fled to their woods, 

 where they were only threatened with a still quicker death. 

 Men between the ages of 30 and 50 seemed most subject to 

 this disease, probably from their unsettled mode of life : 

 women less so ; I have however seen boys and even children 

 suffer from it.f 



* For the sake of uniformity it would be very convenient if we could make out 

 these liver cakes to be spleens. Enlarged liver is not often observed, while enlarged 

 spleen is exceedingly common among the natives of Bengal.. — Tr. 



t Lallemant, an intelligent physician of Rio Janeiro, describes a similar disease, 

 in which he says the heart is enlarged, instead of the liver. — Tr. 



