270 MEDICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



tion is to be met with in Hindostan among the natives, it is 

 not nearly so common as in Europe. We have all seen the 

 good done by a speedy removal to milder air when this dis- 

 order first threatens ; and indeed a change of place,* of 

 whatever nature, would seem to have a happy eflfect. In 

 preventing the suppuration of tubercles, therefore, the warm 

 clime of Asia, we should say, might be safely recommended 

 to such, for instance, as have simply a disposition to disease 

 of the lungs, but on whom the enemy has as yet made no 

 direct attack. More especially the experiment might be 

 attended with advantage to those who are not under the ne- 

 cessity of undergoing the hardships which the poorer adven- 

 turer must encounter in the torrid zone. On the other hand, 

 when the disorder has once made a fatal breach in the lungs, 

 the decay and weakness are greatly hastened by the ener- 

 vating influence of excessive heat, — and death soon ends 

 the scene. Where the greatest risk lies, then, we shall not 

 pretend to decide ; with such facts before them, parents may 

 be enabled to make up their own minds. 



To conclude this part of the subject, we beg it may not 

 be imagined that the obser\ations here advanced convey 

 even the slightest censure on those liberal and able men who 

 direct the affairs of our Asiatic possessions. The prosperity 

 of that great branch of our foreign empire proves the justice 

 and humanity with which it is governed. The fortunate 

 termination of our Eastern wars, and of our other difficulties 

 in that quarter, at a period too when Europe trembled under 

 the scourge of the second Attila, and down to these later 

 times, sufficiently testify the talent with which affairs have 

 been conducted. Nor can the smallest blame attach to the 

 authority which now presides over the medical department 

 immediately connected with the passing of recruits for In- 

 dia. Zeal and assiduity are here as conspicuous as private 

 character is benevolent and estimable. In the mother coun- 

 try the evil consequences were not seen, and could only be 

 remedied by representations from the distant territory in 

 which they were felt, — representations which, if we may 

 judge from the result, must have been as strongly urged as 

 they were speedily attended to. 



* I have known several persons with the seeds of consumption in their 

 frame, who, by frequent change of cUmate, effectuallv succeeded in avert- 

 ing the calamity. 



