PRICKLY HEAT AND DHOBI’S ITCH. Among the minor ills which European flesh inherits in the Tropics there is none that is more distressing than this troublesome malady. The symptoms and appearance are too well known to require description, and the disease is, as a rule, rather irritating and distressing than involving any danger. The process of regulating the temperature of the body depends, however, almost entirely on the action of the skin, and where prickly heat is so extensive and severe as to partially incapacitate it from its functions, it is obvious this usually trifling disease may be a predisposing cause of more serious maladies. Then, again, the loss of sleep and nervous irritation kept up by the constant itching, pricking, and soreness, are powerful helps in pulling down the already severely tried powers of resistance to the climate, and often have a great deal to say in determining an ultimate breakdown. There is a common popular notion that prickly heat is “healthy,” people saying that “it is a sign of health,” and that it is a mistake to check it. This, however, except in so far that healthy, full-blooded persons usually suffer worse than those in an anæmic condition because they usually perspire more freely, is an entire fallacy; as though good health may predispose to prickly heat, it cannot but have an influence in rapidly reducing that factor in its causation. Then, too, the numerous small abrasions that result from the bursting of the minute vesicles, and from scratching, are extremely liable to become infected with the germs of suppuration, and give origin to crops of boils. Boils are extremely common, and are most painful and debilitating when present in large numbers, as they often are in hot climates, and I believe they should be really regarded merely as _sequelæ_ of neglected prickly heat and not as a distinct condition. For these reasons the writer is strongly of opinion that prickly heat should always be treated, especially as it is usually quite possible to keep it within moderate bounds, by the use of appropriate remedies. At sea the use of salt water for bathing should be avoided, but frequent bathing in fresh, and especially in rain water, is not only a great alleviation, but tends towards cure by removing the irritating accumulation of saline matter that results from the constant evaporation of the perspiration. Almost any metallic astringent, such as sulphate of copper or sulphate of zinc, 4 grains to the ounce, will be found to be extremely useful in reducing the extent of the irritation, but none of these are nearly as effectual as a lotion of perchloride of mercury of a strength of one per thousand.