The Aborigines of Brazil. 163 



It is probably the result of rickets, and the immediate conse- 

 quence of organic alterations in the vicinity of the digestive 

 organs. Dr. Paiva told me that he had observed in the bodies 

 of those who had died of this disease, great varicosity of the 

 coronary veins of the stomach, and Piso remarked that they 

 could be recognised at first sight by lumps in the arms. 

 The inhabitants often complain for months, nay for years, 

 of a shooting or burning pain in the region of the heart, 

 which is greatest when the stomach is full, and at times 

 becomes quite intolerable. It increases after every full meal, 

 and after all violent movement of the body. At the same 

 time there is an increased secretion of mucus in the stomach, 

 and in some individuals a great tendency to the production of 

 acid. To get relief from the violence of the pain, the patient 

 lies down in a horizontal position on his back or on his side. 

 At times the pancreas sympathizes, as seems to be shown by 

 an immense quantity of saliva and mucus coming up into the 

 mouth. The habit of the patient is cachectic, and reminds 

 one of a spleen case. After several years suffering, dropsy 

 or putrid fever sets in.* 



Save this remarkable one, which deserves a thorough 

 investigation on the part of the Brazilian doctors, I have not 

 observed any form of disease among the Indians, which I can 

 describe as being of a rachitic nature. Yet it is not rare 

 to see children in a state of atrophy, reminding us of the 

 scrofula of Europeans. 



These are the victims of neglect, especially in cases where 

 their mothers have died. Infants at the breast and small 

 children are by these savages abandoned almost wholly to the 

 care of their mother. While she, with the love of an ape,f 



* I have lately met with a strange case apparently of ossification and eversion 

 of the ensiform cartilage, the end of which may be felt projecting against the skin 

 a little to the right of the mesial plane, the affection has been coming on gradually 

 for a year or two, it causes acute pain after a full meal, the man is otherwise 

 healthy, and well-made.— TV. 



f So in the original. — TV. 



