CLOTHES AND LIGHT 163 



with liquid fire and with poisonous gas. 

 The khaki clad armies have not as yet 

 been charged with military crimes. The 

 blue-clad French army has not fought among 

 a foreign population, has not in fact been 

 tempted or found a motive which makes crime 

 attractive. 



It is be3^ond the limits of coincidence that 

 where large numbers of white men hve an un- 

 sheltered life and wear a single colour, those 

 dressed in blue are guilty — except the French 

 — of violent crime, from which those dressed in 

 compounds of red and yellow are altogether 

 free. 



To the blue, indigo and violet rays of light a 

 white man's bod}^ is transparent as so much 

 water. When he lives outdoors his health is 

 normal so long as his body is sheltered by 

 colours which beat back the actinic rays of 

 light. If he wears blue, white, grey or any 

 other colour transparent to these ra^'s, they 

 burn right through him, destroying all germs 

 of disease, and so allowing the body to develop 

 tremendous energy — the keynote of frontier 

 life. After a fev/ years of this, the actinic rays 

 begin to destroy the tissues of the body, and 

 nerves break down. The symptoms of neuras- 

 thenia are : 



