PRICKLY HEAT. 159 



or folded over each other, and which always appears 

 on the least accession of perspiration. When slight, 

 it is of no consequence, but when it acquires the 

 virulence with which it attacked me and several 

 others on board, it becomes a real infliction. The 

 body seemed to be surrounded by an invisible pad- 

 ding of the finest possible needle-points, and every 

 motion, whether of a limb, or of the muscles of the 

 hand or face, seemed to cause them to be pressed 

 into the skin of the part which was moved. Drink- 

 ing a glass of water, or doing anything which caused 

 a flow of perspiration to the skin, produced this 

 exquisitely painful sensation over the whole of it, 

 from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, 

 and every motion, or pressure for some minutes after, 

 sent fresh gleams of tingling flashing along it. It 

 was said to be a healthy sign, but no malignant 

 disease could equal it in continual annoyance. It 

 bears the exact relation to a mortal fever, that a 

 cloud of mosquitoes does to a tiger. I would always 

 rather run the chance of the one seizing me at once 

 than have the perpetual irritation of the other. 



On January 4th, the Prince George returned from 

 Singapore, having waited till the last minute in the 

 hope that either the September or October mails 

 would arrive from England, both being over-due. 

 Neither of them came, however, and I thus was 

 obliged to enter on the second twelvemonth without 

 news from friends at home, and it was more than 

 half expired before I received any. A year and a 



