When Prof. Agassiz visited Brazil, “on the occasion of his first lectures delivered in the capital, he earnestly requested the emperor that ladies might be allowed to be present,--a privilege till then denied them on grounds of etiquette. The request was granted, and the sacred domain of science for the first time was thrown open to the women of South America.”[3] [3] _Reminiscences._ Julia Ward Howe. Now she is verily a new woman, being far less restricted. The sanitary conditions of the streets have been improved. The sights do not shock her ideas of propriety. Rio is fast becoming a city like any in Southern Europe, never forgetting its superior natural charms. Whoever would have thought that the probable presence of women on the streets of a town could work a revolution! Even the negro porters and little children are now reasonably clad. I used to apostrophize the coffee-sack, ripped a little way at the bottom and a little way on each side to let a head and pair of arms through, as the only garment of the poor man, but now the coffee-sack serves only its original purpose. The curious tin trumpets projecting from the level of the second floors no longer, so far as I have seen, discharge the pails of water which were thrown on the floors and swept out through these convenient vents into the street. There are no longer bonds labeled “descalços,” (barefooted) in which such were compelled to ride. [Illustration: ALLEY OF PALMS, BOTANICAL GARDEN, RIO.] This time you must climb the mountains back of Rio for the night. Had ever an emperor such a park as Dom Pedro made of these mountains of Tijuca! Thirty miles of park road, swept every week, lighted by gas, winding in and out, up and down the precipitous slopes of mountains green to the top! And such green! the green of palms and tree ferns, of trees with orchids and sipos. Every few yards brings you to a distinctly new view: sometimes it includes the Atlantic, sometimes the Rio harbor, sometimes the distant city, more often a lovely valley, a waterfall, a height of rock all covered with ferns and mosses, and another stretch of your winding road with a railing of tall, graceful bamboos growing at some dangerous place. You are shown the spots which Agassiz specially studied and stay in the old hotel where he stayed. Why do people go to Petropolis with this beautiful spot so much nearer? Because, in the summer-time, between December and April, yellow fever has been known to get a little lodgment even here; rarely, it is true, but the foreigner who knows his new home never takes any risks. He will not stay in Rio during fever-time after sundown. He will not go out in the early morning without his coffee. If he has the slightest intimation of fever he takes castor oil without a moment’s delay. If he has taken the fever he goes at once to the hospital in Rio, not risking the change to the cool heights of Petropolis, lest he might not have