260 HEAT APOPLEXY. 



even still more fatal form of attack due to exposure 

 to high temperatures, known as heat apoplexy, to which 

 persons living in this way under shelter are subject. 

 Sun-stroke (Insolatio] from the direct exposure to the 

 sun's rays being only one form of these seizures. 



Heat apoplexy, a syncopal form of heat exhaus- 

 tion, on the other hand is apt to proceed from a 

 high temperature, coupled with insufficient ventila- 

 tion, and not from direct influence to the sun. There- 

 fore it may, and often does, come on at night, when 

 there is no sun as for instance on board vessels 

 running through the Red Sea during the prevalence 

 of a hot wind. The direction of these winds is generally 

 from the N.N.W. in the northern and from the S.S.E. 

 in the southern portion of that sea. Firemen and 

 the engine-room staff on board steamers throughout 

 the British merchant navy are consequently, as might 

 be expected, the greatest sufferers. We have taken 

 the trouble to closely examine the monthly returns of 

 the Board of Trade of the deaths of British seamen 

 for a period of consecutive years, and we find that 

 the preponderance of deaths from heat apoplexy among 

 them is very marked. We are aware that it is usual 

 as far as possible in hot voyages to employ Malays 

 or Negroes, but we find that they suffer about as 

 severely as Europeans ; and many " Lascars " die of 

 it, as these returns show. We also find a large 

 preponderance of deaths from malarial fevers among 

 the engine-room staff. We lay stress upon these facts 

 because they show that the direct exposure to the sun 

 is by no means the thing most to be dreaded, provided 

 of course that proper precautions are used ; if it were so 

 we should naturally expect to find the navigating officers 



