258 SUN-STROKE. 



slight reduction in the weight to be carried. We may 

 rest assured that the sun will strike through any such 

 flimsy materials, and that they will afford practically 

 no adequate protection against the rays of a tropical 

 sun. It is a common thing to hear people say, " light 

 clothes are best for hot weather." If we take this 

 to mean thin things we say no: very thin clothing 

 is undesirable, for the same reason that single-roofed 

 canvas tents or straw hats are undesirable, namely that 

 the sun strikes through them. By all means let the 

 weight be light, and the colour light but you must 

 have a certain amount of substance to withstand the sun ; 

 this may be effected by using sun-pads, or wearing 

 several very thin garments one over the other, accord- 

 ing to ancient Oriental custom, and in various other 

 ways, which would be too long to enter into here. 

 Thus, Solymos in his "Desert Life" mentions, that 

 on one occasion at Dongola on board a Nile boat, he 

 was sternly reminded of this fact, after incautiously 

 exposing himself under " a stout awning " in thin things. 

 For he tells us that " During an hour's lounging under 

 this shelter, dressed only in a thin calico robe, more 

 than half my body was burnt red, and smarting." * 

 Probably quite half the cases of sun-stroke that we 

 hear of are brought on by people exposing the back 

 of the neck and spine to the direct influence of the 

 solar rays, insufficiently protected. Protection to the 

 eyes from sun-glare is also of extreme importance. 

 It is now a matter of well ascertained fact that sun- 

 stroke may occur by exposure of the eyes, quite as 

 much as by that of any other part of the frame. 

 These incautious exposures, moreover, seem to be 



* Desert Life, by B. Solymos, 1880, p. 25. 



