76 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



LPart I. 



versing districts suspected of malaria, experience lias 

 dictated certain precautions, wliicli, witli ordinary pru- 

 dence and firmness, serve to neutralise tlie risk — retiring 

 punctually at sunset, generous diet, moderate stimulants, 

 and the daily use of quinine both before and after ex- 

 posure. These, and the precaution, at whatever sacri- 

 fice of comfort, to sleep under mosquito curtains, have 

 been proved in long journeys to be valuable prophy- 

 lactics against fever and the pestilence of the jungle. 



Food. — Always bearing in mind that of the quantity 

 of food habitually taken in a temperate chmate, a certain 

 proportion is consumed to sustain the animal heat, it 

 is obvious that in the glow of the tropics, where the 

 heat is already in excess, this portion of the ingesta 

 not only becomes superfluous so far as this office is con- 

 cerned, but occasions disturbance of the other functions 

 both of digestion and ehmination. Over-indulgence in 

 food, equally with intemperance in wine, is one fruitful 

 source of disease amongst Europeans in Ceylon ; and 

 maladies and mortahty are often the result of the former, 

 in patients who would repel as an insult the imputation 

 of the latter. 



So well have national habits conformed to instinctive 

 promptings in this regard, that the natives of hot coun- 

 tries have unconsciously sought to heighten the enjoy- 

 ment of food by taking their principal repast after sun- 

 set ^ ; and the European in the East will speedily discover 

 for himself the prudence, not only of reducing the 

 quantity, but in regard to the quality of his meals, of 

 adopting those articles which nature has bountifully 



^ The prohibition of swine, which 

 has formed fin item in the dietetic 

 ritual of the Egyptians, the Hebrews, 

 and Mahometans, has been defended 

 in all ages, from Manetho and Hero- 

 dotus downwards, on the g-round that 

 the flesh of an animal so foully fed 

 has a tendency to promote cutaneous 

 disorders, a belief which, though held 



as a fallacy in northern climates, may 

 have a truthful basis in the East. 

 — ^Eliajt, Hist. Am'm. 1. x. IG. In 

 a recent general order Lord Clyde 

 has prohibited its use in the Indian 

 army. Camel's flesh, which is also 

 declared imclean in Leviticus, is said 

 to produce in the Arabs serious de- 

 rano-enieut of the stomach. 



