QUININE 395 



But a constant supply of air must in no wise be 

 permitted to assume the proportions of a draught, 

 than which there is probably no greater danger to 

 health in a country to which almost every ailment 

 suffered can be traced directly or indirectly to 

 the chill a draught produces. After exercise of a 

 heating character, therefore, no time should be lost 

 in bathing in warm water, assuming dry clothing, 

 and avoiding at all cost the least semblance of a 

 cold current of air. 



For many years after my first arrival in Africa it 

 was the custom of cautious persons to guard against 

 malaria by taking considerable daily doses of 

 quinine. But, for my own part, I did not adopt 

 the practice, first of all because I disliked taking 

 quinine constantly — or any other form of drug, for 

 the matter of that — and secondly because I ob- 

 served that the habit had an injurious effect upon 

 the digestive functions, which were not seldom 

 thrown completely out of gear. As events have 

 since proved, I was instinctively and unconsciously 

 inclining in the right direction, for it has now 

 come to be acknowledged that the properties of 

 quinine as a prophylactic are sufficiently pre- 

 served in the system by taking the drug in 

 moderately fuU doses twice a week only, on con- 

 secutive evenings. This is now the practice in 

 even the most malarious districts of Nyasaland, 

 and its adoption has been attended with the most 

 satisfactory results. 



There can be no doubt, when one comes to recall 

 to mind the physical condition of those settlers who 

 have spent a considerable number of years in this 



