The other device was a muzzle, a respirator, I should
say.
Well! all I have got to say about that is that you need be a
better-looking person than I am to wear a thing like that without
causing panic in a district. Then orders to avoid the night air are
still more difficult to obey - may I ask how you are to do without
air from 6.30 P.M. to 6.30 A.M.? or what other air there is but
night air, heavy with malarious exhalations, available then?
The drinking water you have a better chance with, as I will
presently state; chill you cannot avoid. When you are at work on
the Coast, even with the greatest care, the sudden fall of
temperature that occurs after a tornado coming at the end of a
stewing-hot day, is sure to tell on any one, and as for the orders
regarding temper neither the natives, nor the country, nor the
trade, help you in the least. But still you must remember that
although it is impossible to fully carry out these orders, you can
do a good deal towards doing so, and preventive measures are the
great thing, for it is better to escape fever altogether, or to get
off with a light touch of it, than to make a sensational recovery
from Yellow Jack himself.
There is little doubt that a certain make of man has the best chance
of surviving the Coast climate - an energetic, spare, nervous but
light-hearted creature, capable of enjoying whatever there may be to
enjoy, and incapable of dwelling on discomforts or worries. It is
quite possible for a person of this sort to live, and work hard on
the Coast for a considerable period, possibly with better health
than he would have in England. The full-blooded, corpulent and
vigorous should avoid West Africa like the plague. One after
another, men and women, who looked, as the saying goes, as if you
could take a lease of their lives, I have seen come out and die, and
it gives one a sense of horror when they arrive at your West Coast
station, for you feel a sort of accessory before the fact to murder,
but what can you do except get yourself laughed at as a croaker, and
attend the funeral?
The best ways of avoiding the danger of the night air are - to have
your evening meal about 6.30 or 7, - 8 is too late; sleep under a
mosquito curtain whether there are mosquitoes in your district or
not, and have a meal before starting out in the morning, a good hot
cup of tea or coffee and bread and butter, if you can get it, if
not, something left from last night's supper or even aguma.
Regarding meals, of course we come to the vexed question of
stimulants - all the evidence is in favour of alcohol, of a proper
sort, taken at proper times, and in proper quantities, being
extremely valuable.
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