March i, 1890,] THE TROPiGAL AfJKTGU LTU R1 ST„ 
390,000 tons, against 163,000 in 1855. The plantations 
cover 2,2(J0,000 acres, with about 900,000 million trees. 
In good years the crop is valued at 22 millions sterling, 
nine-tenths being exported. Sugar is the eldest indus- 
try, the crop averaging 300,000 tons valued at £4,000,000. 
Ootton has declined of late years, the area being under 
100,000 acres, and the yield from 30,000 to 40,000 tons 
of cotton-wool, worth about £1,500,000. The yerbalts 
or tea- forests* cover ten million acres, the annual pro- 
duct being 40,000 tons, of which one-half is exported, of 
the value of £500,000. India-rubber from the Amazon 
averages £800,000. The tobacco crop, from 100,000 
acres, is estimated at 38,030 aores, valued at £1,400,000. 
Thus the total vegetable products make up abuut 30 mil- 
lions sterling. Animal products are considerably under 
four millions sterling, and manufactures of all descrip- 
tions fall short of ten millions. Ihere was a time when 
gold and diamonds formed principal products, when the 
Viceroy's horse was shod with the glittering metal, but 
at present the total product under these heads is barely 
£400,000 a year. It to the foregoing we add the earn- 
ings of railways, tramways, gas companies, shipping, 
banks, merchants, professional classes, &c, we find the 
total earnings of the nation approach a sum of 70 mil- 
lions sterling per annum. We see, therefore, that the 
wealth of Brazil is rather a figure of tpeech than a 
reality. The earnings and industries of the Argentine 
Republic in 1884 amounted to £62,300,000, with a popu- 
lation of only 3,200,000 souls, or one-third that of Brazil. 
In the one country the average is nearly £20 per head, 
in the other barely £6, but wealth is so congested 
in the latter that two-thirds of the population 
are extremely poor, while many of the planters have 
enormous incomes. There is some similarity be- 
tween the condition of things in Kussia and that 
in Brazil, neither country being at all aa rich as its 
neighbours. 
Again aa regards " Public Works," railways &c, 
we read : — 
Engineering baa done wonders in Brazil, and the 
traveller is astonished at the signs of gigantic labour 
and persevering energy amid a people and climate sug- 
gestive of indolence. The first railway was made in 
1851, by Baron Maua, to the Organ Mountains, and was 
soon followed by the Pedro Segundo, a main trunk line 
with numerous branches, which passes through the 
most magnificent scenery, carrying two million pas- 
sengers yearly. The Santos aud San Paulo line, made 
by a Londnn company in 1860, at a cost of three mil- 
lions aterlmg, is another triumph of engineering, being 
carried over the Serra (Jubatou at a height of 2,7u0 feet 
by means of four inclines of one in ten, up which the 
train is drawn by a chaiu. The Buhia and Rernambuco 
lines, also by English companies, were made about the 
same time. Several new lines are being constructed in 
the interior, one of the most remarkable being the 
Misiones and Rio Grande line, of which Mr. O'Meara 
has recently opened some sections on the Upper Uru- 
guay. At the close of 1888 there were 5,300 mileB of 
railway in Brazil in actual traffic, of which 4,200 miles 
had been constructed since 1877. Some of them cost 
over £30,000 a mile, owing to the tremendous natural 
obstacles of the route. The total outlay exceeds 100 
millions sterling, about 1,300 miles having been made 
by Government, including the Pedro Segundo line, an 
4,000 by joint-stock companies, chiefly English. There 
are 7,100 milea of telegraph by land, besides oable, 
along the coast, from the Amazon to Montevideo. Ex. 
oept Ginty's roads near Rio Janeyro there are few high- 
ways ; distances are ao great and population so sparse. 
Tho oveilaud route from Rio Janeyro to Goy«z 
tor i xumple, takta 120, and that to Matto Grosao 140 
da)8. Mt:verth«leas, all tho principal tuwns have gas- 
works, schools aud other marks of civilization. The 
municipal hospitals of Brazil aro some of the finest in 
the world, that of the Miaerioordia at Rio Janeyro re- 
ceiving 14,000 indoor patients yearly. Schools ure not 
yet sufficiently numerous, only 15 per ceut of children 
of i-chool ago receiving any instruction. Dockyards 
and ar8enals are numerous aud well-equipped, and 
many of the principal porta have been improved by 
Sir John Hawkshaw. * • * 
1» That is, foreBta of yerOa mate or ' Paraguay tea.'— Ed, 
British trade relations with Brazil do not increase 
much ; they amounted last year to £11,800,000 against 
£10,800,000 in 1878. Internal commerce depends 
chiefly on railways and rivers ; the freight on the 
former, as Colonel Churoh truly observes, is often ex- 
cessive, and the rivers traverse very thinly peopled 
territories. The itinerary el' the Amazon Company 
shows a length of 22,000 miles, including tributary rivera 
of which the Amazon has a hundred bigger than the 
Rhiue. * * * 
The danger of a labour crisis is probably exaggerated. 
It is said, indeed, that the coffee-crop last year felJ off 
by one-third, consequent on the abolition of slavery. 
Some confusion must be expected at first, bnt the 
country will rapidly recover its energies. The United 
States at preseut produce twice as much cotton as be- 
fore the abolition of slavery : there is every reason to 
expect that Brazil will likewise increase her exports, 
especially as the influx of Italians, Germans, &c, con- 
tinues unabated. 
THE EFFECT OF TOBACCO-SMOKE 
ON MEAT. 
Cases of poisoning due to meat which seemed 
thoroughly wholesome have sometimes occurred, and 
have remained unexplained. In the Revue d? Hygiene 
of last mouth M. Bourrier, inspector of meat for the 
town of Paris, makes a valuable suggestion. He de- 
scribes his experiments with meat impregnated with 
tobacco-smoke. Some thin slicts of beef were exposed 
for a considerable time to the fumes of tobacco, and 
afterwards offered to a dog which had been deprived of 
food for twelve hours. The dog, after smelling the 
meat, refused to eat it. Some of the meat was then 
cut into small pieces and concealed within bread. 
This the dog ate with avidity, but in twenty minutes 
commenced to display the most distressing symptoms, 
and soon died in great agony. All sorts oi meat, both 
raw and cooked, some grilled, roasted, and boiled, were 
exposed to tobacco-smoke and then given to auimals, 
and in all cases produced symptoms of acute poisoning. 
Even the process of boiling could not extract ftom the 
meat the nicotine poison. Grease and similar substances 
have facilities of absorption in proportion with their 
fineness and fluidity. Fresh-killed meat is more 
readily impregnated, and stands in order of susceptibility 
as follows : pork, veal, rabbit, poultry, beef, mutton, 
horse. The effect also varies considerably according to 
the quality of the tcbacco. All these experiments 
would seem to denote that great care should be taken 
not to allow smoking where foods, especially moist foods, 
such as meats, fats, and certain fruits, are exposed. — 
Tobacco. 
♦ 
WESTEEN AUSTRALIA AS A SANATORIUM 
AND PLACE OF RESORT FROM CEYLON, 
We have much sympathy with the subject of 
the letter of Mr. Wayien of Western Australia 
who passed through Colombo on his way to Europe 
by last Orient steamer. During our first visit to 
the Australian colonies in 1869, we wrote fully about 
Tasmania as the complement in so many ways to 
the island of Ceylon and as offering in climate 
especially, a very suitable change for tropical resi- 
dents. Tasmania is indeed regarded very much 
as their Sanatorium by residents in Viotoria, New 
South Wales, South Australia and even Queens- 
land. The distanoe from Ceylon is however a 
great drawbaok and when on a visit in 1876 to 
Western Australia, during which we travelled some 
hundreds of miles into the country, the many 
attractions of its fine dry, and, in the cool season, 
bracing climate were fully realised and we wrote 
at length of the advantages offered by the trip 
from Colombo to Albany, and thence into the 
interior, or better still when the mail-steamers 
called at Freomanllo, This latter arrangement has 
