the dulness of their perceptions, they are less easily kept awake by sensorial or mental excitement, than because they really require a prolonged cessation of activity." 1. Regularity in the hours of going to sleep is very important in the tropics. Between nine and ten will be found. the best time. 2. The apartment should be cool, and every means adopted to keep it so; but the individual should be completely kept from draught, and from the sudden changes of temperature and the humidity of the atmosphere which is peculiar to the tropics. 3. Every circumstance by which the sleep can be disturbed should be obviated. Thus, in places where mosquitoes and sandflies are prevalent, proper curtains should be used. 4. It is always most preferable and desirable to go to bed with a clear head. The habit of much drinking at night disturbs the sleep and renders it unrefreshing. 5. Those who are habituated to late hours and bacchanalian riots, will find themselves much relieved from the after consequences of the imprudent habit by bathing their head with cold water before going to sleep. 6. Reading late at night in the tropics is a habit not to be encouraged, for the nervous system has enough of excitement during the hot and busy hours of the day, and requires repose at night. 7. When there is a feeling of tension, heat, headache, throbbing, and other unpleasant sensations in the head, we should lie down quietly, and endeavour to get a sleep, for it is certain that something wrong is going on in the brain, and rest and quietude are most likely to relieve it. 8. Sleeping until too late in the morning, when the sun has ascended to a great distance above the visible horizon, produces lassitude and want of energy in individuals in the tropics. 9. Rising at daylight and enjoying the fresh and cooling breeze of the morning, in a verandah, or beyond the reach of malaria, is very healthy and invigorating. Rules for government of the passions. 10. During the blowing of the hot simoom, in the hot season, in the interior of the Gambia, or the sirocco of the east, when no dew falls, sleeping in open verandahs is not only safe, but advantageous. On the other hand, during the rains, the harvest, and harmattan, such a habit will be found most destructive to life; in fact, there are many cases in the Gambia where men, whose names I might mention, have continually exposed themselves in this way, contrary to all advice of their friends, and thus laid the foundation of acute diseases, which have proved their death-warrants. 11. The dyspeptic, namely, those who suffer from flatulency, heartburns, and griping pains, are occasionally troubled with nightmare, which disturbs their rest. They should take carbonate of soda and a little peppermint, and always keep their bowels regular. 12. Late suppers, cheese, and other flatulent food, and all indigestible fruits, should be avoided at night. This rule is particularly incumbent on the dyspeptic. VII.-REGULATION OF THE PASSIONS. Moseley, quoted by Martin, has said that in the inhabitants of hot climates there is a promptitude and a bias to pleasure, and an alienation from serious thought and deep reflection, unless sickness obtains an absolute control over the body. "The brilliancy of the sky and the beauty of the atmosphere," he observes, "conspire to influence the nerves against philosophy and her rigid tenets, and forbid their practice among the children of the sun." The effects of great heat on these "children of the sun" I have considered at some length in Chapter III.; but I think Sir Ranald Martin has hit the right string, when he says that the "removal of religious and moral restraint, the temptations to vice, the facility of the means, and the force of example, are the real causes of this bias to pleasure." That able observer has truly and feelingly pointed out where the real cause of this propensity is to be found. "The monotony of life," he says, " and the apathy of mind so con spicuous in hot climates, together with the obstacles to matrimony, too often lead to vicious and immoral connections with native females, which speedily sap the foundations of principles imbibed in early youth, and involve a train of consequences not seldom embarrassing, if not embittering every subsequent period of life. It is here that a taste for some of the more refined and elegant species of literature will prove an invaluable acquisition for dispelling ennui-the moth of mind and body." 1. A strict moral principle is beneficial in the tropics. 2. The Christian religion has a more beneficial influence on the minds of men in the tropics than either Mohammedanism or any other religious tenets. 3. Slothful and squalid habits should be avoided. The saying is true that "a slothful, squalid-looking population invariably characterises an unhealthy country." 4. Every substance or circumstance which induces nervousness and excitability of the nervous system should be avoided. 5. Persons accustomed to licentious indulgences are to be avoided, especially on first arrival. 6. Always keep the mind occupied in doing something; never sit down and allow the thoughts to go astray. 7. Agreeable society should always be courted, as it relieves the mind a great deal. The society of real ladies will be found preferable to any other. 8. The occupation of lofty buildings, or buildings in elevated portions of a town or city, has a very beneficial effect on the mind. The converse is also true. 9. In order that the moral principles might be more easily kept, the new arrival should watch over and prevent any laxity in habits or principles acquired in his early religious training. 10. The companionship of persons of irritable and violent temper should, as much as possible, be avoided, as in the tropics such habits are peculiarly catching, and have an injurious effect on the health. 11. Too hot diet, or hot condiments taken in excess, have an injurious influence on the passions. Rules for prevention The use of certain kinds of food and drink may tend to confirm or impair certain moral habits. Sometimes it may operate directly, and by the immediate impressions which it produces; at other times by the different states of health or disease which it occasions, or by the changes in the fluids and solids which result from it; for all these different alterations in the system soon manifest themselves more or less distinctly in the ordinary dispositions of the will and understanding" (Canabis). 12. A poor diet and a simple vegetable diet affects the passions injuriously, and therefore should be avoided. "The poor diets prescribed by the legislators of various religious orders have never had the effect of diminishing the venereal appetite, but have, on the contrary, inflamed these propensities the more, or disordered the imagination in diminishing the physical forces; and thus men have been rendered more feeble, more unhappy, and more easy of domination" (Canabis). Before concluding this part of the work, I shall here detail certain precautions necessary for the prevention of some of the diseases peculiar to tropical climates. I.-MALARIOUS FEVERS. From the foregoing chapters it will be seen that malarious of malarious fevers are most common in districts which are ill drained, and fevers. abound in stagnant marshes and collections of decayed vegeta- of our action should be to drain the land, to use stringent means for preventing the accumulation of decayed vegetable or animal matter, and, consequently, to put a stop to all miasmatic effluvia or exhalation. With regard to the individual who must be exposed to malarious fever, or "who has once had the fever," says Dr Watson," he should, in whatever place he may happen to be, avoid exposure to extremes of cold and heat, and the neglect of changing wet clothes-wet shoes and stockings, for instance. "In malarious districts, in tropical climates, for example, persons should bear in mind the fact, that the miasmata are much more virulent in the night time than in the day, and closer to the surface of the earth than in the higher strata of the atmosphere. They should refrain, therefore, from going out late in the evening, or early in the morning, in countries where ague is rife; should take care not to go out fasting; a good hot breakfast should be first taken, or, at any rate, some moderate stimulant. A crust of bread, or a glass of wine, or a small quantity of ardent spirits, will fortify the system against the pestilential miasma. Generous diet and fair allowance of fermented liquor are proper, also, for all persons in aguish countries." To substantiate the fact that good living is a safeguard against malarious fevers, I will add an example which I noticed in the late Ashantee expedition with an officer of the 1st West Indian Regiment. Lieutenant S arrived at the He encampment at the Praah on the 30th April, full of strength and vigour, having just arrived from the West Indies in the transport. Ten other officers came up with him. Unfortunately, he was not only a vegetarian but a water drinker. was able for a week to attend to the duties of the camp, after which he gradually became weaker. The countries around the encampment had not in cultivation vegetables which contained a sufficient amount of protein compound necessary for his nourishment. He was the first laid up, and he had a most T |