Both natives and white residents are at times in rather a low condition of health, and if after exercise or labour they fail to get their meal at the proper time, when it comes they cannot eat. In its lighter form this is called desgána or loss of appetite, but I have seen natives collapse under such circumstances with severe headache and chills. This more serious form is known as traspaso de hambre, and is sometimes the precursor of fever and nervous prostration. The Roman Catholic Church has had the wisdom to recognise and make allowance for the liability of residents and natives of the Philippines to this serious disorder, and has relaxed the usual rules of fasting, as being dangerous to health. Amongst the Europeans who have been long in the Islands, many are said to be "chiflado," a term I can only render into English by the slang word cracked. This occurs more particularly amongst those who have been isolated amongst the natives. It is not easy to account for, but the fact is undeniable. I have heard it ascribed to "telluric influence," but that is a wide and vague expression. Perhaps the explanation may be found in the extreme violence of the phenomena of nature. The frequent earthquakes, the almost continuous vibration of the soil, the awe-inspiring volcanic eruptions, with their sooty black palls of ash darkening the sky for days together, over hundreds of miles, the frightful detonations, [18] the ear-splitting thunder, the devastating rage of the typhoons, the saturated atmosphere of the rainy season, and the hot dry winds of Lent, with the inevitable conflagrations, combine with depressing surroundings and anxieties to wreck the nerves of all but the strongest and most determined natures. If to all this the white resident or sojourner in the Philippines adds the detestable vice of intemperance, or even indulges in a liberal consumption of spirits, then instead of merely shattering his nerves, he is likely to become a raving maniac, for it takes much less whisky to bring on delirium tremens there, than it does in a temperate climate. Long sojourn in some other lands appears to act in a different manner. In tropical Africa it seems to be the moral balance that is lost. The conscience is blunted if not destroyed, the veneer of civilisation is stripped off, the white man reverts to savagery. The senseless cruelties of Peters, Lothaire, Voulet, Chanoine, and of some of the outlying officials of the Congo Free State are not mere coincidences. They must be ascribed to one common cause, and that is debasement by environment. The moral nature of a white man seems to become contaminated by long isolation amongst savages as surely as the physical health by living amongst lepers.