SMALLPOX IN BRAZIL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 376, 26 April 1879, Page 22

SMALLPOX IN BRAZIL.

(Correspondent Otago Daily Times.)

I wrote you something about the plague of smallpox iu Brazil, but until-recently I was unable to find details. They are simply horrible. In the stricken districts of Brazil, out of a population of 900,000, the deaths amounted to 500,000. A correspondent of the New York Herald penetrated the famine districts, aud lie presents a picture of desolation and terror seldom if ever paralleled. The people affected were mostly' small farmers. There are no manufactures, few roads, and no telegraph or railroads in tlie district. The population was practically isolated from other provinces. Reports of the famine, which began in 1877, were long in reaching the Government. Here is what happened:—By' the beginning of 1878 the mortality from starvation was terrible, and tlie panic-stricken and starving peasants flocked to tlie larger towns. Here there was little to give, and Government aid came slowly. Men fought like tigers for refuse, women died with starving children in their arms, aud, iu some cases, men aud women devoured tlie dead bodies of their own children. It is estimated that 150,000 people tiled from hunger. At last supplies reached the famine districts, but the ignorant people were demoralised, and it was difficult to enforce sanitary regulations. The dead bodies of those who had starved were in many cases not buried, and in other cases only a few handfulls of earth had been thrown upon them. The survivors huddled together in tho towns, lived in filth and idleness. The whole population of the province was gathered in a strip of territory along the coast not more than 75 miles wide. The drought still continued, and birds, insects, and animals died. The people were fed by Government rations, but the fearful death-rate continued, and it was discovered that smallpox had broken out among the refugees. This was in June, 1878, and the disease spread rapidly to all classes, including the wealthier and aristocratic people of tho cities. Up to this time the Government had had the advice and aid of those. Now all became panic-stricken, and a reign of terror was inaugurated. In the 90,000 people gathered in and abound Fortaleza the deathrate in the latter part of November was over

500 per day. On the last day of November there were 574 deaths, and during the month nearly 12,000 interments had taken place in the two cemeteries, and thousands of dead bodies lay unburied in the forests. At this date over 30,000 people were sick, and on Dec. 10 the deaths from sinall-pox were nearly ] 000. This was the death-rate of the great London plague, but there was a population of 300,000. At Fortaleza, with a population of only 75,000 there were 1000 deaths in a single day. The death-rate decreased from that date, dropping on December 20 to 400, and by December 30 to 200. The registered deaths for the month were 21,000. In the midst of such a pestilence there was necessarily much carelessness as to burial. Dead bodies were laid in trenches, and a light covering of sand was thrown over them. This carelessness in due time added new horrors to the situation, and contributed, no doubt, to the inauguration of new disease resembling the Black Plague now raging in Russia. Scenes-like those described at Fortaleza were common in other towns of the province, and out of a population of 900,000, only 400,000 remain. The Brazilian Government made all possible effort to stop the ravages of the small-pox, and in some localities their agents were successful. As it is the province is, in truth, desolated, and if the new disease at Fortaleza is the plague, more disastrous consequences are to follow.