478 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



Through the whole district of the Mines, that dreadful disorder, 

 the Goitre, or, as it is called here, the Papas, prevails greatly, afflicting 

 people of all classes and all colours ; even the cattle do not escape. I 

 have endeavoured to trace it to the coldness of the waters, to the 

 mineral and vegetable impregnations which they contain, and am satis- 

 fied with neither solution. On a very large estate, near Sahara, it 

 prevailed so much, both among the family and the cattle, that the owner 

 was induced to dispose of the place. The purchaser observing that one 

 side of it was bounded by a river, which flowed through thick native forests, 

 and attributing the evil, as is generally done, to the water, he caused a 

 broad trench to be dug across the ground, so as to compel the cattle to 

 seek their beverage from some springs, which he opened and nurtured, 

 and ordered the same spring-water to be used in his house. No Goitre 

 has appeared upon the estate since, though he has been in possession of 

 it several years. 



In another case, where the patient was servant to a Military Officer 

 from St. John, with whom I was well acquainted, a different remedy 

 was effectual : this man attended his master to Rio, who took a house 

 about two miles from the city, whence the slave had to go every morning 

 to marketj and, because sea- views were new to him, generally chose to 

 walk along the beach. Thinking the taste of sea-water not unpleasant, 

 he occasionally took some of it : his Goitre was soon observed to be 

 softer, and sensibly less, and in the space of two months entirely 

 disappeared. I attributed the cure to the salt which the water contained, 

 and, in similar cases, have since frequently recommended the free use of 

 common salt, stating, however, that, in this single instance, the cure was 

 followed by another unpleasant complaint, which possibly might arise 

 from other causes. There certainly also are salt eaters who are affected 

 with the Goitre : yet it is a fact speaking strongly in favour of the 

 remedy, that in the whole interior of South America salt is an article of 

 extraordinary luxury ; for want of it European cattle languish and die, 

 and it is wonderful to see how oxen and mules will lick and gnaw the 

 ground of the Rancho where a cargo of salt has been laid down only 



