and during the alternation, from the sluggish heat which
precedes the monsoon, to the moist and chill vapours that follow the
descent of the rains, intestinal disorders, fevers, and liver complaints
are not more characteristic of an Indian monsoon than an English autumn,
and are equally amenable to those precautions by which liability may be
diminished in either place.

[Footnote 1: See _ante_, p. 57. It is an agreeable characteristic of the
climate of Ceylon, that sun-stroke, which is so common even in the
northern portions of India, is almost unknown in the island. Sportsmen
are out all day long in the hottest weather, a practice which would be
thought more than hazardous in Oude or the north-west provinces. Perhaps
an explanation of this may be found in the difference in moisture in the
two atmospheres, which may modify the degrees of evaporation; but the
inquiry is a curious one. It is becoming better understood in the army
that active service, and even a moderate exposure to the solar rays
(_always guarding them from the head_,) are conducive rather than
injurious to health in the tropics. The pale and sallow complexion of
ladies and children born in India, is ascribable in a certain degree to
the same process by which vegetables are blanched under shades which
exclude the light:--they are reared in apartments too carefully kept
dark.]

_Paleness_.--At the same time it must be observed, that the pallid
complexion peculiar to old residents, is not alone ascribable to an
organic change in the skin from its being the medium of perpetual
exudation, but in part to a deficiency of red globules in the blood, and
mainly to a reduced vigour in the whole muscular apparatus, including
the action of the heart, which imperfectly compensates by increased
rapidity for diminution of power. It is remarkable how suddenly this
sallowness disappears, and is succeeded by the warm tints of health,
after a visit of a very few days to the plains of Neuera-ellia, or the
picturesque coffee plantations in the hills that surround it.

_Ladies_.--Ladies, from their more regular and moderate habits, and
their avoidance of exposure, might be expected to withstand the climate
better than men; and to a certain extent the anticipation appears to be
correct, but it by no means justifies the assumption of general
immunity. Though less obnoxious to specific disease, debility and
delicacy are the frequent results of habitual seclusion and avoidance