should ever be allowed to be constructed with a plinth of less than one foot, and provided the material be obtainable without making undesirable excavations, it cannot well be too high, a fact well understood by the earlier European residents in India, whose fine old houses, however wanting their work may be in the matter of finish, form an admirable contrast, in this and many others of the essentials of a healthy residence, to the cramped, low-lying heat traps of admirably pointed brickwork in which the occupant of a “sealed pattern” government quarter is now doomed to live. The writer is personally strongly of opinion that all tropical residences should be at least two storied, so that the sleeping apartments should be raised at least some 12 or 15 feet above the ground, and of course, where this is the case, the provision of a high plinth is less essential, but in any case, the minimum of at least a foot should be insisted upon. In regions such as Assam and Burmah, where the rains are so heavy as to reduce the entire country to a chronic condition of flooding, any adequate plinth would be so costly that both natives and settlers build their houses perched up on poles, and the numerous sanitary advantages of the plan are undeniable; which is also, I understand, adopted in Honduras. [Illustration: FIG. 2.--In the above sketch of an ordinary Anglo-Burman bungalow, it will be noticed that the large projecting porch is raised higher than the rest of the house so as to admit of a carriage being driven beneath it to the foot of the steps to the platform of the house. These porches form a sort of open-air sitting room, and are more usually on the same level as the rest of the house. They form a most attractive feature of most Burmese bungalows, but it would be very difficult to protect them against mosquitoes by means of wire gauze.]