168 



TRAVELS IN BRAZIL 



climate to the acceleration of the animal functions, 

 and to consequent exhaustion, we clearly found 

 by our own experience, especially at the beginning 

 of our residence, when the body was not yet 

 weakened by fatigue and sickness. Even when in 

 a state of the greatest repose, and without the in- 

 fluence of other stimulants, our pulse was quicker 

 than in Europe : unfortunately this effect was 

 changed into the opposite, when we began to grow 

 sickly from the fatigues of our journey. This 

 greater activity of the functions is manifested in 

 health, as well as in sickness, by the quicker ap- 

 pearance of the symptoms and the more rapid 

 progress of the disorder. It is nothing uncommon 

 here, in Rio de Janeiro, and in the tropical coun- 

 tries in general, to see an individual who but a few 

 days before was in full health, after suffering a 

 short time from diarrhoea, cholic, fever, &c., at the 

 point of death, and in the last stage of a putrid 

 fever. Nothing but the speedy application of the 

 most certain and powerful remedies can then save 

 him ; and in this respect, it may be said that the 

 physicians here, more than in colder climates, must 

 be not only ministri but magistri naturce. 



The croup manifests itself in this country with 

 the same violence in its progress as in Europe. It 

 has been particularly observed in white children. 

 If it be true that this disease is of modern origin, 

 and concurs to characterise the peculiar periods of 

 the development of the human race, it is doubly 



