THE 



CALCUTTA JOURNAL 



OF 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



The Natural History, the Diseases, the Medical Practice, 

 and the Materia Medica of the Aborigines of Brazil, by 

 Dr. Von Martius. Translated by John Macpherson, 

 M. D., Assistant Surgeon. 



[Concluded from page 176.] 



III. — Practice of Medicine, and Materia Medica. 



Medical Practice. 



This is entirely in the hands of a few men and in some 

 instances old women, who push themselves forward by their 

 powers of observation, and by their cunning. The doctor, 

 called in the Tupi language Paje, is always a man of influence 

 in the tribe, and perhaps treated with more respect than the 

 physician meets with at the present day in Europe. He belongs 

 to no corporation, to no particular class ; he is not doctor, is 

 not even master of arts : he does not acquire by any diploma his 

 right to cure, yet his influence is very great, in fact unlimited. 

 The stolidity and ignorance of the multitude, and his own 

 activity, make him pass with it for a more elevated nature. 

 He is often at once the oracle and the lawgiver of the whole 



VOL. VI. NO. XXIII. OCTOBER, 1845. 2 S 



