Effects of the Climate on Europeans. 43 



mediate gradations, whether of dark or fair temperaments. 

 Persons who readily lose the natural glow of health, and be- 

 come pallid on exposure to great cold or extremes of heat, for 

 example, are not easily browned by the sun ; such are soonest 

 fagged by inordinate bodily exertions, although the indi- 

 vidual will sometimes refuse to admit what is palpable to 

 the looker-on ; still there is no mistaking this simple fact, and 

 its general application. I have had much experience of the 

 physical requirements of the British soldier, and after over a 

 score of years' observation, am well convinced, in order to 

 support the fatigues and hardships which he is daily called 

 upon to undergo, that, irrespective of stamina, no man ought 

 to undertake to meet the vicissitudes of tropical sun and soil 

 until he is at least twenty years of age. My own impression 

 is that, whether as a colonist or belonging to the army, he who 

 has to fight against the climate of Canada on the one hand, 

 and Central Africa or India on the other, should be fully de- 

 veloped ; therefore the minimum age ought not to be under 

 twenty-five. This I know full well would bring few recruits 

 to our depots, but it is a case of pounds, shillings, and pence 

 which the ratepayer will do well to consider. 



After all, the men. who have made the most marked im- 

 pression on the history of civilization have been, as a rule, the 

 possessors of a mens sana in corpore sano, I mean where the 

 hardships of sun and soil have to be overcome. Some have 

 fallen victims to one or both before the battle was over, whilst 

 others, like Livingstone,* weathered the storm. All fulfil the 

 natural law whereby the strongest gain the day, or, in other 



* Many practical illustrations of what has been stated are fresh in 

 my memory. Without particularizing individual instances, I may observe 

 that several of the men of mark who have aided in extending our Indian 

 empire, have been famous for their great activity and powers of endurance, 

 perhaps in some cases selected ; but I opine in the majority of instances 

 their chief recommendations were indomitable pluck and enterprise, with 

 powers of endurance which carried them through difficulties where nine 

 out of ten of their compeers would have succumbed. 



