The diseases of this district are very similar to those which are common in the more northern part of the province. In the low country, which, during the rainy season, is full of marshes and swamps, intermittent fevers are prevalent, and are often fatal to those coming from the upland districts. As very few only can afford to purchase sulphate of quinine, the general mode of curing these fevers is by emetics and purgatives, and occasionally by bitter barks obtained from the trees in the woods; of these the one most commonly used is procured from the _Strychnos pseudochina_ of St. Hilaire, a small tree which grows on the upland campos. A strong infusion of coffee with a mixture of salt is also sometimes administered. Though the inhabitants of the plains are constantly subject to the fever, they seldom die of the disease itself, but the effects which it produces on the constitution after a long series of yearly attacks, ultimately cut off a great many. The principal organ that becomes affected is the spleen, which is sometimes so much enlarged, that it nearly fills the whole abdominal cavity; when travelling in these districts, we seldom arrived at a house where I was not consulted respecting enlargements of this organ. The liver is more rarely affected: its affections are generally produced by intemperance in eating and drinking, and by the constant and immoderate use of tobacco. In the Villa intermittent fevers are unknown, in consequence of its being situated above the region of miasmata, unless they appear in cases where the infection has been imbibed below. The traveller before alluded to, who gave up the house for our use, left behind him an Indian servant, with no one to attend to him, and whom I found almost dead from the attacks of a severe tertian ague, but who soon recovered after being properly treated. This poor fellow was a native of the banks of the Amazon, and he remained in my service until my arrival in Rio de Janeiro. These fevers very often lose their intermittent character, and assume a malignant remittent nature. The prevailing diseases in the Villa are ophthalmia, colds, inflammatory complaints, rheumatism, and dyspepsia; paralysis also is common; and as a preventive, nearly all the people wear a thick twisted iron ring, made on the Saturday of the passion week (sexta feira da Paixão), and blessed by a priest. Goître is common, but not nearly so much as in Natividade and Conceição. Here they attribute it to the coldness of the water they use for drinking.