122 ON CHANGE OF CLIMATE. 



are we not justified in the expectation, that his amended 

 health, and, in the case of a private soldier, improved habits, 

 might enable him to resist exposure to the same exciting 

 causes ? I have seen numerous examples of young officers, 

 whose early period of service was a series of constant illness 

 and sTiifering, but who, having been sent to Europe, before 

 the formation of distinct organic disease, have returned to 

 India with constitutions completely renovated, and have 

 afterwards proved to be among the most zealous, active, and 

 efficient soldiers, of whom our raitks can boast. Of this fact, 

 (without, however, pretending to the credit of the last part of 

 the exemplification) I may cite my own case, as one of the 

 most striking examples. 



I am, I confess, sanguine as to the result of a similar ex- 

 periment, made in incipient disease, by sending young men 

 to the Neilgherries for a time, with the view of checking the 

 predisposition to disease, so often manifested shortly after 

 their first arrival in the country ; and I consider the plan par- 

 ticularly applicable to the cases of young European soldiers, 

 for whom the alternative of being sent to Europe for their 

 Jiealth is nearly, if not wholly, out of the question. 



Section 2. — Hints to Intalids, 



The first most obvious effect of the climate of the hills on 

 an invalid is, to I'epel the blood from the surface. It appears 

 from the preceding remarks on climate that the average tem- 

 perature of Ootacamund is 58^, while that of the low country 

 on the Coimbatoor side is probably 86°, or 88°, and on the 

 Mysore side, 82°, or 84° ; consequently, the difference of tem- 

 perature is, on the average, from 24° to 30°. But if we sup- 



