168 AN OCTOBER ABROAD. 



influences. What the secret of it may be, I am at a 

 loss to know, unless it is that the moist atmosphere 

 does not dry up the blood as our air does and that 

 the carbon and creosote have some rare antiseptic 

 and preservative qualities, as doubtless they have, that 

 are efficacious in the human physiology. It is no 

 doubt true, also, that the people do not tan in this 

 climate, as in ours, and that the delicate flesh tints 

 show more on that account 



I speak thus of these things with reference to our 

 standards at home, because I found that these stand- 

 ards were ever present in my mind, and that I was 

 unconsciously applying them to whatever I saw, and 

 wherever I went, and often, as I shall have occasion 

 to show, to their discredit. 



Climate is a great matter, and no doubt many of 

 the differences between the English stock at home 

 and its offshoot in our country, are traceable to this 

 source. Our climate is more heady and less sto- 

 machic than the English ; sharpens the wit, but dries 

 up the fluids and viscera ; favors an irregular, nervous 

 energy, but exhausts the animal spirits. It is, per- 

 haps, on this account that I have felt since my return 

 how much easier it is to be a dyspeptic here than in 

 Great Britain. One's appetite is keener and more 

 ravenous, and the temptation to bolt one's food 

 greater. The American is not so hearty an eater as 

 the Englishman, but the forces of his body are con- 

 stantly leaving his stomach in the lurch, and running 

 off into his hands and feet and head. His eyes are 



