March 1, 1901.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
59§ 
THE ENDURANCE OF TROPICAL HEAT. 
Dr. William Huutei' Workman, M..-V., m.d , 
F.R.G.s, writes an article of nearly six 
columns in length in the Pioneer this month 
entitled: " The Endurance of Tropical Heat, 
a Study from Personal i^xperience," aud 
endeavours to combiit, aiid claims to destroy, 
some of the prevailing notions regarding 
hecit in the tropics. Dr. Workman is known 
in Ceylon for his five months' tour liere 
with Mrs. Workman, whose fame, by the 
way, springs rather from her being the 
first lady mountaineer in the world than 
from any cycling achievements. «' He cer- 
tainly achieved longer rides per diem in 
our hill and lowcountry than are usually 
performed by the ordinary resident in this 
island ; but his experiences in India, not 
in endurance of mere iieat alone, but of 
thirst, becoming continuously more intoler- 
able, which is the outcome of long distance 
wheeling in the peculiar heat prevailing on 
the driest routes traversed, certainly sur- 
passed anything undergone in the way of 
physical hardship in our midst. Here we 
may quote an interesting passage : — 
" We canied four felc-cuvered aiuiuiuiuui water- 
canteens, each containing a quart, if the contents 
of these haU been used with any such freedom as 
thirst demanded, our supply would never have lasted 
beyond nuon, and usually not till then. We found 
it advisable when passnij^ a railway station at any 
time during the day to stop to fill our canteens, and 
drink as much water as we possibly could. Other- 
wise we replenished our stuck as occasion offered 
at dak bungalows, or failing these, if we passed 
through a town large enough to have a postmaster, 
we applied to hiiu, though we drank with misuivings 
unboiled water obtained from natives. In riding 
through the lihil country aud other famine districts 
in February, 1900, we had no opportunity to obtain 
any water except at ari occasional railway station. 
Nearly all wells, streams and tanks wei e dry. W hen 
all the above sources failed, we had to euduie the 
tortures of thirst, from the time our canteens gave 
out till the Journey's end. On one such occasion 
when our last drop of water was exhausted at three 
o'clock p.m. we arrived at our destination in dark- 
ness at half-past seven so used up and with throats 
so parched that .ve could only with difficulty utter 
an articulate sound." 
Survivors of such hardships, we would 
point out, must be persons extremely well- 
fitted physically for the trials of endurance 
undergone ; and we do not hold this to be any 
proof of what may be done by the residents 
of longstanding in the country, who bear 
the heat and burden of the day, working 
in their offices, and are only able to take 
comparatively brief exercise before our 
briefer tropic twilight. The advice Mr. 
Workman so vividly describes, as warnings to 
him that he must not do this and that, was, of 
co>irse, given by people who have become 
more subject to the effect of the tropical 
sun ; and, even if well meant, has, we admit, 
proved more than mistaken in the case of 
this successful tourist over islands and 
continents of no mean size. What we 
would emphasize is that Mr. Workman had 
experienced a good deal of foreign travel, 
involving physical endurance, before his 
firduous Avanderings iu Iqdui, and that he 
was therefore in a condition to stand 
far more than the Anglo-Indian, hovv- 
ever abstemious, who becomes slightly 
more subject to the effects of tropical heat 
—not necessarily of the sun's rays, for though 
Mr. Workman half hints that exposure to 
these in India need not do harm, he 
does not exactly say so — with each 
succeeding year. Mr. Workman "dodges" 
this question of sun's rays with the ability 
of a mountaineer on the prose slopes that 
correspond to those of Parnassus ! In Kashmir 
he has stepped into the open Sunlight with 
only a cap on his head, hut — at 5,000 feet 
above sea; in America, at close on 100 degrees 
Pahr., he has seen young men expose 
themselves for hours to the burning sun and 
done the same himself ; but no mention is 
made of similar exposure in the plains. Even 
if such was undergone, his subsequent 
mountaineering feats prove that he and 
his active wife were persons of no common 
powers in the endurance of extreme heat and 
extreme cold, in the art of pedalling an ex- 
tensive mileage and of making stiff pedestrian 
ascents. 
"Moidart," in the Pioneer, writes a witty 
and useful letter in reply to Dr. Workman, 
but the record of his far more dependable 
experience is spoiled by attributing exag- 
gerated conclusions to Dr. Workman's long 
and, throughout, able article. Nevertheless 
we give two extracts, the first for its prac- 
tical worth, the second for the entertainmg 
advice given ; and with these we conclude : — 
"As to what to do to stand the hea;;, I say 
only general rules can be given which each man 
must adjust to suit his own constitution. Watch 
your health. Wear what clothes you can. Prickly 
heat will soon explain if you make a mistake. 
Wear a hat of thickness which will allow you to 
stay out from 10 to 3 without a headache, and see 
that it is well ventilated above the hair. Don't 
go out, unless obliged, before the' sun is up ; as 
nothing gives a headache more quickly than hori- 
zontal sunrays which strike your neck below your 
hat. Take as much exercise as your organisation 
will permit, as you must never allow yourself to be 
overtired. It upsets digestion and banishes sleep. 
Sleep as long as you can. Goodness knows it is 
little you get at some seasons of the year. 
" I presume we shall soon hear of Dr, Workman 
lecturing in Europe on the failure, through their 
own bad management, of Europeans in India to 
enjoy the glorious climate they are privileged to 
live in: also advice as to how they should bear 
heat and, I must not forget, quench thirst, this 
time, I hope, in a temperature above 130 degrees. 
On the chance of this meeting his eye, 1 wouid 
humbly and with due deference suggest that, to 
assuage abnormal thirst after a hot day, a more 
effectual and perhaps more comfortable remedy, 
than pouring gallons of fluid down his throat, would 
be to soak himself in a warm bath and then sip a 
cup of boiling tea or, still better, one cold, weak, 
however pernicious and despised whisky and soda.'* 
THE SISAL MATTER. 
(To the Editor of "the Speaker.'') 
Sir— I should like to make a few remarks in 
reference to a letter signed " Observer " in your 
issue of the 15th inft. In the first place, your 
corcespondeut has misread thQ report of the Oo- 
