Persons residing in tropical climates ought, more than others, to avoid intoxicating liquors. It is too much the practice in the West Indies to allay thirst by copious draughts of rum punch. In the East Indies, the natives, with greater propriety, principally use rice-water (congee); while the Europeans residing there, are in the habit of indulging in Champaign, Madeira, and other rich wines, which may in a great measure account for the mortality prevailing among them in that region. A fearful demoralization, as well as loss of life, is occasioned among the British troops in the East and West Indies, from the cheapness of spirituous liquors, which enables them to indulge in them to excess. “Since the institution of the Recorder’s and Supreme Courts at Madras,” says Sir Thomas Hislop, “no less than thirty-four British soldiers have forfeited their lives for murder, and most of them were committed in their intoxicated moments.” Dr. Rollo relates, that the 45th regiment while stationed in Grenada, lost within a very few weeks, twenty-six men out of ninety-six; at a time, too, when the island was remarkably healthy. On inquiry, it was found that the common breakfast of the men was raw spirits and pork. It is remarked by Desgenettes, in his Medical History of the French Army in Egypt, that, “daily experience demonstrates that almost all the soldiers who indulge in intemperate habits, and are attacked with fevers, never recover.” In countries where the solar influence is felt with such force, we cannot be too temperate. The food should be chiefly vegetable, and the drink as unirritating as possible. It may be laid down as an axiom, that in these regions, wine and ardent spirits are invariably hurtful; not only in immediately heating the body, but in exposing it to the influence of other diseases.[43] A great portion of the deaths which occur among Europeans in the tropics, are brought on by excess. Instead of suiting their regimen to the climate, they persist in the habits of their own country, without reflecting that what is comparatively harmless in one region, is most destructive in another. There cannot be a stronger proof of this than the French troops in the West Indies having almost always suffered less in proportion to their numbers than the British, who are unquestionably more addicted to intemperance. “I aver from my own knowledge and custom,” observes Dr. Mosely, “as from the custom and observation of others, that those who drink _nothing but water_, are but little affected by the climate, and can undergo the greatest fatigue without inconvenience.”[44]