644 
proved, than the fact, that exposure to sun, 
without exercise sufficient to create free 
perspiration, will produce illness, and- that 
the exposure to the sun with sufficient ex- 
ercise will not produce illness. Let any 
man sleep in the sun, he will awake per- 
spiring, and very ill; he will, perhaps, die. 
Let the same man dig in the sun for the 
same length of time, and he will perspire 
ten times as much, and be quite well. The 
fact is, that not only the direct rays of the 
sun, but the heat of the atmosphere, pro- 
duce abundance of bile, and powerful ex- 
ercise alone will carry off that bile. The 
alarm of people on the subject of fevers is 
sometimes quite laughable. I have seen 
officers walk about in the West-Indies 
during the yellow fever, with vinegar bot- 
tles to their noses; and in the Ionian 
Islands, I have seen a whole regiment put 
to bed for some hours at mid-day, for fear 
of the sun! men who daily eat a pound of 
meat, quantities of vegetables, and a pound 
of bread, drinking like fishes, taking no ex- 
ercise, going to bed at night about nine 
o’clock, and rising at five. Now ten or 
twelve hours of bed, fullliving, and no exer- 
cise, ina hot climate, is enough to create 
disease. I haye heard some things pro- 
posed for preserving health, much too ridi- 
culous to repeat ; in short, there is no end 
to the fancies of men under the influence of 
fear of climate; they become so many old 
women, when this nonsense gets hold of 
them. No one is fool enough to maintain, 
that a hot sun will not produce more inju- 
rious effects on some constitutions, and less 
on others ; or that men will not, generally 
speaking, enjoy better health in their own 
climate than in a foreign one: but the bad 
effects of sun are exaggerated to a degree, 
by some British officers, that is not only 
ridiculous, but perfectly contemptible ; a 
pretty sight, truly, to see officers unable 
to show their noses without parasols; is 
this the way to give a military spirit to a 
corps? No; these are the effeminacies 
which lazy and bad officers introduce in hot 
countries, and which spoil troops. I do 
not say, that an officer is never to use an 
umbrella, or that it is not wise for soldiers 
to avoid the noon-day sun, by staying in 
their quarters; on_the contrary, I think 
there is a certain latitude in all things ; but 
it is very unsoldierlike to see officers on 
duty with parasols, while the private sol- 
diers are exposed to the sun or the rain. 
These are things men should take in com- 
mon.”’—“ More diseases are caught in the 
night than in the day, and the chief 
cause of illness in the Ionian Islands is the 
exposure to the malaria while sleeping, and 
drunkenness. Wherever stagnant water is 
found, there will also be found malaria; the 
smallest pool will more or less produce 
this.’’—“ I cannot help thinking that sol- 
diers, instead of wearing out their night- 
caps at twelve o’clock in the day, should 
wear out their shoes, by being made to 
Malaria of Hot Climates. 
_ work, or by long marches with their packs 
on, Manceuyring over the hills for two or 
three hours ; though not at noon day, be- 
cause marching is more violent exercise 
than working, and to over-heat and fatigue 
men is as bad as the contrary extreme.” 
We add an extract from another sec- 
tion on the subject of the plague it- 
self, 
* On Coast Guards.—The great danger 
of getting the plague from the Greek coast, 
gave rise to the bad system of obliging the 
peasants to furnish sentries at certain points 
of the coast, in order that people should 
not land, except at those ports where health 
offices are established ; a plan more harass- 
ing to the people, or more useless, could 
hardly haye been imagined. It is evident, 
that clandestine Jandings will be made om 
those days when, and at the places where, 
the friends of those who wish to land are 
posted. Such people are never strangers ; 
they are always either islanders, who wish 
to avoid performing quarantine, or smug- 
glers, who want to avoid both quarantine 
and the custom-house. Strange as it may 
appear, the peasantry of Cefalonia seem to 
have no dread of the plague, although they 
have so lately suffered under this terrible 
scourge, introduced by smugglers in the vil- 
lage of Comatata. They not only will not 
endeavour to prevent clandestine landings, 
but hold it to be a point of honour to con- 
ceal all such transactions, and paralize the 
efforts of government to detect them. With 
, them it is the “ good cause’ to which they 
are never faithless. If it were simply a 
matter of smuggling, the thing would be 
trifling, and particularly as smuggling is not 
carried on to any great extent; but the 
whole island may be depopulated; thou- 
sands may in afew hours fall victims to the 
dreadful malady, brought among them by 
those who, for their private convenience, 
break the quarantine laws. ~ A little con- 
sideration will satisfy any body, that no 
punishment can be too severe for the crime 
of clandestinely landing ; death has there- 
fore been pronounced against those who 
break the laws of quarantine. 
** Where such difficulty of detection exists 
as to render it impossible to discover the 
offenders, it matters little what punishment 
is decreed. The system of guards of pea- 
santry, as I have said, is of no use; it aids 
concealment, rather than discovery, the 
sentinels are in the service of the enemy ! 
But to find out how to remedy this erying 
evil is very difficult.” 
Some portions of a letter, addressed 
to the Colonel by “ Dr. Cartan, a medi- 
cal officer, whose skill is highly es- 
timated in the Ionian Islands,’ may 
also throw some light on this much 
agitated subject. 
“ The strong winds prevailing in the val- 
leys at particular perjods of the day—for 
example, 
ee 
