HYGIENIC NOTES. 39 
in the first place that miasmatic poison is most powerful between 
sunset and sunrise—more exactly, from the damp of the 
evening until night vapors are dissipated; we may be out in 
the daytime with comparative impunity where to pass a night 
would be almost certain disease. If forced to camp out, seek 
the highest and dryest spot, put a good fire on the swamp side, 
and also, if possible, let trees intervene. Never go out on an 
empty stomach; just a cup of coffee and a crust may make a 
decided difference. Meet the earliest unfavorable symptoms 
with quinine—I should rather say, if unacclimated, antici- 
pate them with this invaluable agent. Endeavor to maintain 
high health of all functions by the natural means of regularity 
and temperance in diet, exercise and repose. ‘* TAKING COLD :” 
This vague ‘‘ household word” indicates one or more of a long 
varied train of unpleasant affections, nearly always traceable 
to one or the other of only two causes: sudden change of tem- 
perature, and wnequal distribution of temperature. No ex- 
tremes of heat or cold can alone effect this result; persons 
frozen to death do not ‘‘take cold” during the process. But 
if a part of the body be rapidly cooled, as by evaporation from 
a wet article of clothing, or by sitting in a draught of air, the 
rest of the body remaining at an ordinary temperature; or if 
the temperature of the whole be suddenly changed by going out 
into the cold, or, especially, by coming into a warm room, there 
is much liability of trouble. There is an old saying—‘ when 
the air comes through a hole say your prayers to save your 
soul;” and I should think almost any one could get a‘‘cold” 
with a spoonful of water on the wrist held to a key-hole. Sin- 
gular as it may seem, sudden warming when cold is more dan- 
gerous than the reverse; every one has noticed how soon the 
handkerchief is required on entering a heated room on a cold 
day. Frost-bite is an extreme illustration of this. As thes 
Irishman said on picking himself up, it was not the fall, but 
stopping so quickly, that hurt him; it is not the lowering of 
the temperature to the freezing point, but its subsequent ele- 
vation, that devitalizes the tissue. This is why rubbing with 
snow, or bathing in cold water, is required to restore safely a 
