PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS OF RIO DE JANEIEO. 475 



— embroidery of all sorts, artificial flowers and the like. 

 Thence we passed to the wards. As in the Misericordia, 

 the rooms are very large and high, wainscoted with tiles, 

 and opening upon wide corridors, which look out into the 

 enclosed gardens. Some of the dormitories have fifteen 

 or twenty beds, but many of the sleeping-rooms are 

 smaller, it being better, no doubt, to separate the patients 

 tvt night. We saw but little indication of suffering or 

 distress among them. There were one or two cases of 

 religious melancholy, with the look of fixed, absorbed sad- 

 ness characteristic of that form of insanity. We were 

 met once or twice by the vacant stare, and heard the 

 senseless chatter and laugh always to be found in these 

 saddest of all asylums for human suffering. But, on the 

 whole, an air of cheerfulness prevailed ; with few excep- 

 tions all the patients were occupied, the women with plain 

 sewing or embroidery, the men with carpentering, shoe- 

 making, or tailoring, making cigars for the use of the 

 establishment, or picking over old cordage. The Superior 

 told us that occupation was found to be the most efficient 

 remedy, and that though work was not compulsory, with 

 few exceptions all the patients preferred to share in it. 

 The whole service of the house — washing, sweeping, wax- 

 ing the floors, cleaning the chambers and putting them in 

 order — is performed by them. Sunday is found to be the 

 most difficult day, because much of the ordinary occupation 

 is suspended, and the patients become unruly in proportion 

 as they are unemployed. From these apartments, where all 

 were busy and comparatively quiet, we passed to a corridor 

 enclosing a large court, where some of the lunatics, too rest- 

 less for employment, were walking about, gesticulating and 

 talking loudly. The corridor was lined on its inner side with 



