气候潜势与巴西霍乱大流行(1854—1868)

The Great Brazilian Cholera Epidemic of the Nineteenth Century

几个世纪来,巴西一直享有健康伊甸园的美誉,这源于它不像其他热带地区存在常见的热带病和瘴气。巴西人与欧洲人常认为这归功于大西洋宜人微风的影响。然而,这一想法随着1850年代黄热病和霍乱的暴发而破灭。当霍乱进入这一新地域时,巴西人遭受了西方世界死亡率最高、持续时间最长的流行病之一的打击。巴西政府对霍乱与其他流行病的消极反应促使巴西国内奴隶制与原有资助移民政策的终结。

For centuries,Brazil maintained a reputation that it was a healthy Eden free of the worst tropical fevers and miasmas so common in other parts of the torrid zone.Brazilians and Europeans often attributed this to the effects of salubrious breezes from the Atlantic.Such an idea was ruined with the arrival of yellow fever and cholera in the 1850s.When cholerae entered new territory,Brazilians suffered one of the highest mortality rates and longest-lasting epidemics in the western world.This and other epidemic diseases elicited a desperate response by the Brazilian government that helped end slavery and finance immigration.The government spent far more money to transport European immigrants to the southeastern highlands than on public health.This region,including São Paulo and parts of Rio de Janeiro,was the last part of Brazil to uphold the timeworn reputation of a perpetually verdant,productive,and healthy climate well suited for white settlers.