ON CHANGE OF CLIMATE. 121 



It is not easy to fix a period for this consummation of the 

 cure, even in the most general terms, so much must depend 

 on the nature of the individual case, and of the disease, the 

 time it has lasted, the age, sex, and constitution of the patient ; 

 as a general rule, however, it may he laid down, that a patient 

 who resoi-ts to the hills, convalescent from any of the more 

 serious forms of Indian disease, should not quit the hills, 

 until he has been, at least, six or seven months free from all 

 symptoms of actual disease. 



An important consideration, as connected with the hills, 

 but which has not yet met with the attention it deserves, is, 

 the prophylactic (preventive) powers of the climate. No 

 axiom in medicine is more firmly established, than that of 

 " Venienti occurrite morbo," and I shall be disappointed, if 

 this is not hereafter discovered to be applicable, in the most 

 extended degree, to the Neilgherries. 



It must have occurred to even the most casual observer, to 

 have seen numerous instances of young men on their first ar- 

 rival in the country, attacked by some of the common Indian 

 complaints, which yield readily to the usual means, but are 

 sure to re-appear at the end of a very short time ; until, after 

 a succession of similar relapses, the unlucky subject is either 

 forced to quit the country, to recover his health, or perhaps 

 finds a release from reiterated sufferings, in a premature grave. 

 It is by these slight, but repeated attacks, in particular, that is 

 laid the foundation of a whole catalogue of visceral diseases, 

 parabysmic enlargements, organic derangement, scirrhus, &c. 

 and, even under the most favourable circumstances, such a 

 case can rarely, if ever, be converted into an efficient soldier. 

 Were he, however, after his first or second attack, transferred 

 to a cool healthy climate, and left there, till the natural powers 

 of his constitution had overcome this predisposition to disease, 



