52 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



certain purity and elasticity in the air : except when the heat is combined 

 with moisture, then the air becomes stagnant and suffocating. The rainy 

 season, especially the warmer part of it, is the most productive of disease. 

 The city is more healthy than the marshy spots, less so than the elevated 

 parts of the country. A great change, for the better, has been produced 

 by clearing the neighbourhood of many of the forests, with which it was 

 overspread. The addition of the court and its followers, and of the mul- 

 titudes, whom commercial views carried to Rio, had a bad effect on its 

 general health, as bringing together a too crowded population ; while the 

 consequent extension of the city, the example of strangers, and the par- 

 tial adoption of their manners, did much to restore the balance. Alto^ 

 gether, it is, without question, become more healthy than it was. 



