56 .THE SICKLY SEASONS. 



days it seems hard to conceive that any considerations 

 of this kind could have been held to justify the reten- 

 tion of Europeans, year after year, in time of peace, 

 in pestilential quarters, when so obvious a means of 

 preserving health existed ; but it is unfortunately only 

 through losses and sufferings that men are ever taught 

 to reflect. 



Instances of this kind might be multiplied almost 

 without end, were it desirable to do so, which show 

 that, in the words of Sir James Martin, a well-known 

 Indian medical authority on these matters, it is not an 

 exaggeration of the facts to say that, " with our com- 

 manders and statesmen, it has never been the disaster, 

 or the loss of an army, but always the accusation of 

 having caused it, that has disturbed their serenity. " * 



The fact is, in every country, however bad a repu- 

 tation its climate may bear, there is always a healthy 

 season, as well as a sickly one and the great art for 

 travellers and others is to know how to time their 

 movements so as to avoid the latter, by selecting the 

 proper moment for pushing rapidly through the un- 

 healthy regions, to the comparatively healthy highlands 

 beyond, before the bad season returns. 



Generally speaking, there can be no doubt that for 

 a traveller such an arrangement is perfectly feasible, 

 provided, of course, that a man is his own master, and 

 that the claims of business, or of duty, do not intervene 

 to hamper his movements. The question is peculiarly 

 one of arrangement and organization, every detail of 

 which requires to be thought out beforehand, and it 



* The Influence of Tropical Climate in Producing Disease of 

 Europeans, by Sir James R. Martin, M.D., of the Indian Medical 

 Council, 2nd Edit. 1861, p. 199. 



