TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



317 



more difficult of digestion, and eating much pork, 

 may likewise contribute to the development of 

 this disease : perhaps excess in sexual enjoy- 

 ments may be considered as one cause of the 

 goitre, as it is at Rio of the sarcocele and hydro- 

 cele. It is true, we do not here see the melancholy 

 appearances of idiocy which are so frequently com- 

 bined in Europe endemically with the goitre ; yet 

 the look of the persons who have the disorder in a 

 high degree is not merely drowsiness and want of 

 energy, but even stupidity, in the strict sense of 

 the expression. It is customary to apply, at the 

 commencement of the disease, poultices of warm 

 gourds, the patient at the same time drinking water 

 which has stood for several days upon the pounded 

 mass of large ant-hills. The component parts of 

 the ant-hills, which are from five to six feet high, 

 in the construction of which the insect makes use 

 of a peculiar animal slime as a cement, certainly 

 seem capable of counteracting the causes which 

 produce the goitre. Perhaps, too, the acid of ants 

 may have a beneficial influence on the relaxed 

 nerves of the patient, as well as on the debility of 

 the lymphatic system. The negroes here, as in 

 Africa, make much use of mucilaginous substances : 

 they use, for instance. Gum Arabic against the 

 goitre with good success ; a mode of treatment 

 which seems to point at the origin of this disease 

 as proceeding from the diet. 



In the course of our journey from Jacarehy, 



