Climate and Health in Hot Countries and the Outlines of Tropical Climatology: A Popular Treatise on Personal Hygiene in the Hotter Parts of the World, and on the Climates That Will Be Met Within Them.Giles, George Michael James
Science
Climate and Health in Hot Countries and the Outlines of Tropical Climatology: A Popular Treatise on Personal Hygiene in the Hotter Parts of the World, and on the Climates That Will Be Met Within Them.
Giles, George Michael James
Hygiene -- Popular works; Medical climatology; Tropical medicine
This programme, it will be observed, admits of an eight hours’ working
day, and if anyone is asked to work more than this in a hot climate, the
most appropriate advice that can be given them, of course strictly from
the point of view of hygiene, is--to strike. This arrangement of meal
times is of course very much that obtaining on the Continent, and on
this account many find it difficult to accustom themselves to it, and
retain the nine o’clock English breakfast and early afternoon luncheon,
but this breaks up the morning’s work awkwardly, and makes the number of
substantial meals too large to suit most people under the altered
conditions of life. Comparatively few people find it advisable to
persevere in the use of the cold bath in hot climates, for, strange as
it may appear, but few people find it “agree” with them as well as is
commonly the case in Europe. This is especially so in the case of those
who have suffered much from malarial fever, as most residents of any
standing have; for in such persons any sudden shock is apt to give an
opportunity to the germs of the disease lying latent in the system, and
so to bring about a relapse of fever. Personal experience can of course
alone serve as a guide in such a matter, but those who have recently
suffered from a malarious attack will do well to be cautious.
With regard to the question of light and ventilation of the house; in
places on the coast, where really excessive heat is rarely experienced,
all that is necessary is to get as much air as possible without
admitting the direct rays of the sun. Inland, however, where the
thermometer may stand in or above the nineties for months together, a
certain amount of management is required to keep the heat inside the
house down as much as possible. To effect this, it is above all
essential that every door and opening should be thrown open at night so
that the cooler air may get the best possible chance to reduce the
temperature of the heated walls. Unfortunately, owing to the uniform
peccability of human nature, it is not always practicable to do this, if
one wishes to retain one’s ownership of movable property; as in most
parts of the world, it is scarcely possible to keep all doors and
windows open unless they are protected with bars, a precaution which
lends a very forbidding and prison-like aspect to a house. Fortunately,
as a rule the native burglar is not a very desperate character; and
prefers to work by stealth to attempting to get through any obstacle
that might make a noise in the opening. But for this, and the fact that
a certain awe usually attaches to the person of an European, robberies
could hardly fail to be much more common than they are, for as a rule
the bolts and bars of a tropical villa are contrived with a child-like
simplicity, which would raise a smile on the face of Mr. William Sykes
and his pals.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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