14 TRAVELS m 
and these, according to the reports of the surgeons, were 
complaints generally brought on by too free an use of the 
wines and spirituous liquors of the country, of which theif 
pay enabled them to procure an excess. The sudden change 
of temperature, especially from heat to cold, may perhaps 
be one of the causes of consumptive complaints which are 
very frequent in all classes and ages. ]3ut the common dis- 
ease to which those of the middle age are subject, is the 
dropsy. A confined and sedentary life : eating to excess, 
twice and commonly thrice a-daj^ of animal food swimming 
in fat, or made up into high-seasoned dishes; drinking raw 
ardent spirits; smoking tobacco; and, when satiated with 
indulging the sensual appetite, retiring in the middle of the 
day to sleep; seldom using any kind of exercise, and never 
such as might require bodily exertion, — are the usual habits 
in which a native of the Cape is educated. An apoplexy or 
a schirrous liver are the consequences of such intemperance. 
The former is seldom attended with immediate dissolution on 
account of the languid state of the constitution ; but it gene- 
rally terminates in a dropsy, which shortly proves fatal. The 
diseases to which children are most subject are eruptions of 
different kinds, and sore throats. Neither the small-pox nor 
the measles are endemic ; the former has made its appearance 
but twice or thrice since the establishment of the Colony, but 
the latter has found its way much more frequently. Great 
caution has always been used by the government against 
their being introduced by foreign ships calling at the Cape. 
Instances of longevity are very rare, few exceeding the period 
of sixty years. The mortality in Cape Town, taken on the 
average in the last eight years, has been about two and a 
