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Brazil and Brazilian Society.
[September,

there who would do credit to the first institutions of Europe. The greater part of their medical works are written in French, All are acquainted with the language, and many speak it. Some also are acquainted with the German, and have libraries partly French and partly German. With such elements one need not be astonished to find, that most of the physicians upon the coast possess real merit, We cannot say as much of those of the interior. It is not rare to find among them a mulatto, who, having learnt in a negro infirmary to prepare mercurial pomades, administer purgatives, and dress snake-bites, styles himself a doctor. Sometimes a Frenchman comes over as cook upon some vessel, goes ashore, and sets himself up as surgeon-dentist, But as a set-off to this, it must be confessed that one sometimes meets with excellent black physicians at Bahia and Rio.

PLANTATION HOSPITALS.

Upon the large fazendas the infirmary is open to all the sick of the neighborhood, Alongside of plantation negroes treated for incipient elephantiasis or a wound, you find a tropeiro arrested on the road by imprudent exposure to the sun; or agregados from the neighboring forests stricken with fever, or poor colonists of the district who have left their mud-cabins to seek a healthier asylum and more efficacious medicines, Separate apartments are provided for the two sexes. Sometimes a negress who has fled from slavery, having become a mother, and being unable, through fear and privation, to nurse her child, comes at night and lays it behind the door of the infirmary. The rest is evident. The padre baptizes the little black, and forthwith delivers it to the director of the hospice, who is charged with bringing it up. In years of epidemic, when pestiferous breezes sweep over the country, and death carries his terrors into the plantation, and the rancho, the infirmary of the fazenda is a godsend to the people. The creoles then suddenly throw aside their nonchalance, and rival each other in zeal and sacrifices. The foree of physicians, attendants, and nurses is doubled. A physician from the cidade is brought at great expense, while a caravan goes to bring from a distance a supply of all the pharmaceutical ingredients that can counteract the plague. Poor people who do not wish to leave their families, come at all hours of the day or night to obtain consultations or advice. Sometimes a free man, kept back by fear or false pride, permits himself to waste away in fever upon his bunk rather than apply to the neighboring fazenda. Whenever the planter hears of such a case, he instructs a doctor, who forthwith mounts on horseback, and goes to persuade the sufferer to allow himself to be treated. These outbursts of spontaneous philanthropy, which give birth to such noble devotion, are not rare in creole life.

KINDNESS TO STRANGERS.

The hospitality so generously practised toward the sick extends to every thing and to every body, It may be said that the fazenda is the caravanserai of foreigners who are trayelling in Brazil. If it were not for them, travel would be impossible, It is true that one finds near the coast a few vendas smelling of putridity, cachaça, and decaying fish; but they become more and more rare upon advancing into the interior. The plantation, on the contrary, rarely disappoints one. Whenever a stranger arrives at the door, a negro shows him a rancho for his horse, and then conducts him into the house, where are the roomy allotted to travellers. At the dinner hour he seats himself at the senhor's table, takes part in the conversation if it interests him, and retires when he The next day he sets out immediately after breakfast, in order to reach the next fazenda before nightfall. If he needs rest, he can remain several days in succession. No one would even think of asking his name. This is ancient hospitality in ail its grandeur and sim-