298 CACAO 



Intemperance in eating and drinking, in exercise, in 

 sleeping, in work, or in bathing, are all apt to endanger 

 the health. Indulgence in intemperance of any kind 

 surely weakens the constitution and lays it open to attacks 

 of disease ; and very often the serious result of ordinary 

 attacks is brought about entirely by the conduct and 

 habits of patients. The health of a colony is blamed for 

 the indiscretion of the colonist, and home people record 

 another " poor fellow sacrificed to a pestilential climate," 

 when it, in all truth, should read " another sacrifice of wilful 

 indiscretion." Attention to general health is of the greatest 

 importance — not that it is necessary to fuss over it, but 

 merely to keep a strict watch on the daily habits and assist 

 them when necessary until the immigrant is acclimatised. 

 To become acclimatised takes as a rule from one to three 

 years, and those who reach this stage most quickly are 

 those who most quickly adopt the domestic customs — ^the 

 food and practices of the country in which they are making 

 their home. There are good scientific reasons for this 

 when we learn that the necessary bacterial " flora of the 

 stomach " differs in no little degree in the tropics from that 

 existing under the temperate zone. It is well known that 

 many of the bacteria assist the stomach in the digestion 

 of food, and there are others which combat the effect of 

 the pathological kinds and render them harmless. Until, 

 therefore, a full bacterial flora is acquired to assist in 

 digestion of tropical foods the colonist cannot be said to 

 have become acclimatised. To acquire this readily it is 

 best for the new-comer to dispense with the ever-present 

 prejudice which such persons generally show to new classes 

 of food and the different preparations it undergoes, and 

 to make himself at home with the domestic arrangements 

 which he meets as quickly as possible. 



A man who will only consume beef-steak, ham, and 

 potatoes, or other English or American food, will be longer 

 in becoming acclimatised than he who adopts at once the 

 practice of the country. It is also necessary that the 

 mind should be settled. To him who comes to a country 



