32 INFLUENCES OF GREAT SUMMER HEATS. 



The heat to which we here refer is that of a tropical 

 character, where high temperatures are constant through- 

 out the year; high summer temperatures merely, do 

 not seem to exercise a permanently debilitating effect, 

 or to impair in any serious degree the national vigour 

 of the race. Thus in Australia, the United States, and 

 elsewhere, the sun temperatures in the hot weather are 

 often very extreme ; yet the solar rays seem to a great 

 degree to have lost their power of inflicting serious 

 harm, and the more acute forms of dysentery and 

 hepatic disease are seldom met with. Sunstroke also 

 is rarely to be dreaded, except in cases where excess 

 in alcoholic stimulants, or starting upon a journey with 

 an empty stomach, has predisposed the individual to its 

 effects; and we believe we should not be far wrong 

 in asserting that most of the cases of sunstroke, heat 

 apoplexy, etc., which occur in the great cities, or during 

 the march of military forces in the temperate zones, 

 may be traced to over-indulgence in this respect, per- 

 haps during the previous night; combined, it may be, 

 in the case of persons of the humbler classes, with 

 exposure to the sun on an empty stomach. The ex- 

 periences of settlers in Australia and South Africa, or 

 on the plains of Texas, and other places, where the 

 summers are very hot, seem pretty well unanimous in 

 admitting that though often very trying, the hot weather 

 in those countries rarely exercises any seriously pre- 

 judicial effect upon the health; and instances are common 

 of Europeans who have emigrated, and resided there 

 for years, without their health being in any way impaired 

 though constantly exposed to the sun, in the great heats. 



We have laid some stress upon these points because 

 of the number of enterprising young persons who are 



