CAUTIONS AGAINST INTEMPERANCE. 265 



plainest food, which should be well done ; to dine, if pos- 

 sible, on one dish, or two dishes at most ; not to take more 

 than two meals in the day, the second certainly not sooner 

 than six hours after the first ; not to be afraid of Mack tea, 

 which in moderation is virtually stomachic ; to masticate 

 sufficiently, so as not to entail on the stomach a duty which 

 does not belong to it ; to shun crude vegetables or fruits ; 

 to prefer that liquor (sparingly used) which is least apt to 

 Droduce acidity, such as Cape Madeira* of the best quality, 

 sherry, or weak brandy and water ; not to expose them- 

 selves to great heat more than duty requires ; to sleep with 

 the head high ; to take care that the bowels are kept regularly 

 open ;+ and if their situation renders it convenient, to use 

 equitationt in the cool of the morning ; in a word, always 

 to manage themselves, according to the best of their means, 

 with a view to eschew, if possible, those disorders, whether 

 hepatic or otherwise, for the removal of which mercury is 

 usually employed. The frequent or indiscriminate use of 

 that medicine is the ruin of many fine constitutions ; and 

 in Hindostan, when employed by injudicious men (and es- 

 pecially those lately arrived from Europe, who have been 

 informed that in India mercury will do every thing), is ten- 

 fold more destructive than the sword itself. 



What the souty, or those liable to become so, have either 

 to dread or to hope from the chmate of the East, comes 

 ■next to be considered. It has been remarked, that some 



* This wine is not in good repute on account of a great deal of vile 

 stuff being sold under the name : but the writer can declare that he has 

 Imown more dyspeptic people benefited by usmg m moderation Cape 

 Madeira of the first quality (which can be had in London from those who 

 deal in no other wines), than by any medicine whatever. But it is cheap, 

 —a sufficient reason in our good country for its being condemned. 



+ After what has been already noticed of the mischief done by neg- 

 tecting constipation, it is scarcely necessary to say more ; but this must 

 be added, that the writer never yet knew a bad case of liver or dysentery 

 in India that had not been preceded by costiveness. The pill which he 

 found most useful for keeping the bowels open is the common compmmd 

 Colocynth pdl -it never sickens the stomach nor gripes. Four grains 

 Df this will usually be found sufficient, taken at bedtime, to assist nature. 

 Double the dose will generally open the bowels freely. 



I Of all modes of exercise the most conducive to health in inaia is 

 ■riding on horseback ; by no/t trotting there is a gentle impulse given to 

 the ingesta, downwards, as well as to the bile, <fec. ; and a tone ana 

 .^nergy produced throughout the whole circulation. So much cannot oe 

 iiaid for hard galloping, which, in a torrid region, often over-agitates, ana 

 never fails to be injurious in what are called nervous habits. 

 Vol. III.— Z 



