80 EEVIEW — TKOPICAL MEDICINE, ETC. 



Food— the nutritive quality of the beef and mutton is inferior, and that more has to be taken to 



continued supply the bodily wants, thereby taxing the digestive organs, which in hot climates are 

 usually feeble, and bringing a train of gastric, hepatic and intestinal troubles. As regards 

 fowls, it is stated that their nutritive value is relatively small and chicken is frequently 

 difficult to digest. Moreover, the monotony of eating fowl day after day, and month after 

 month, let the fowl be cooked in ever so many ways, palls upon the appetite after a time, 

 and digestion and nutrition suffer. One may add here that this is still more true of pigeons, 

 which form such a staple dish in Egypt and the Sudan. " Curry," says Cantlie, " if properly 

 made, is a hygienic dish and the condiments should be added by the consumer himself, or 

 herself, at the table and not by the cook." The word " curry " really means sauce, and the 

 therapeutic use of pepper seems to be not so much as a stomachic tonic as an intestinal 

 stimulant and chiefly as a stimulant to the large intestine. It is the large intestine that 

 first flags in its duty in the case of natives of tropical countries, who are very subject to 

 constipation owing to the atonic condition of the colon, a state of things often remedied by 

 the use of black pepper. 



Alcohol. The natives of warm climates, both by their religion and their habits, shun 

 alcohol. It is in no sense a food, and Europeans in tropical countries would do well to 

 avoid its use altogether. 



Spirits and beer in hot, moist climates are positively detrimental to health ; light wines, 

 white or red, do least harm. Champagne, taken after excessive fatigue, about sunset, is 

 perhaps the safest form of alcoholic beverage. It should not be taken with meals, but only 

 on reaching home after a fatiguing march, or long exposure to wet. 



It is possible that in such a dry country as the Northern Sudan alcohol is not so 

 detrimental as in moist regions if taken only after sunset, and many feel the better for an 

 evening " nip." At the same time, the evil effects of alcohol may be insidious and may not 

 show themselves for years. On the whole, I am inclined to think that the total abstainer is 

 the more energetic and more healthy man here as elsewhere in tropical countries, but it is 

 well not to be too dogmatic and to remember " what is one man's food is another's poison." 



Tea. " As a stomachic tonic," says Cantlie, " and as a safe way of introducing fluid to 

 the system, tea would seem beneficent and hygienic." It was evidently introdi;ced by the 

 Chinese, owing to the calamities arising from drinking unboiled water. Deep well-water is 

 almost unknown in China, and the shallow wells and streams are so apt to become polluted, 

 owing to the habits of the Chinese, that experience dictated the necessity of boiling the 

 water. But boiled water being insipid, and the object of its being boiled not being evident 

 to ignorant and thoughtless people, the water was " flavoured " by the leaves of the tea plant, 

 a custom which has become widespread. It was, no doubt, for hygienic purposes tea was 

 introduced, but the abuse of tea-drinking has brought many evils in its train. The Chinese 

 drink tea after finishing their principal meal, and in fact as a drink at any time. They do 

 not drink tea during their meal, but after the meal is finished. The pernicious system of 

 drinking tea during a meal is one peculiar to British folk, and the habit is fraught with 

 many dyspeptic troubles. The best China tea, i)repared by pouring boiling water over the 

 leaves and immediately pouring the water oii' the leaves, is a wholesome fluid, calculated to 

 aid digestion, especially when taken after the meal is finished. Tea taken with animal 

 food, be it eggs, fish, flesh or fowl, is a certain means of producing dyspepsia, for when the 

 tea is " drawn " for a long time, and when the tea used is of an inferior quality — the 

 method and material usual in Britain and Australia — the tannic acid of the decoction, 

 uniting with the albumen of the animal tissues, produces a leathery compound which no 

 gastric juice, however potent, can penetrate and digest. Tea, used as the Chinese use it, is 

 a hygienic drink ; as it is usually used in Britain and by the British folk throughout the 

 Empire it is detrimental to the public health. 



Coffee. Two or three mouthfuls of good coffee after a meal are an aid to digestion ; 

 taken in quantity — brcakfast-cupfuls — it is an impediment to digestion, and, diluted with 

 half milk and taken with a meal of eggs, fish, fowl, or flesh, is still more so. 



Tobacco. Tn moderation, and smoked soon after a meal, the deleterious effects of tobacco 

 arc infinitesiujal. When indulged in to excess, say six to eight cigars, or fifteen to twenty 

 cigarettes, or 1 oz. of pipe tobacco, it is an injurious cardiac depressant. 



An interesting letter is that by Payn,' whose conclusions we quote, although he refers 

 more to conditions suitable to cold than hot countries. Still, even in hot countries sugar is 



> Payn, F. W. (September 21st, 1907), " Athletics and Food Values." Lancet, p. 859, Vol. II. 



