Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/193

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IN INDIA.
173

and make pedestrianism fashionable, they would effect a reform that would contribute materially to the improvement of the public health in India. Riding is by far the most common mode of exercise,and many take their morning and evening ride as commonly as their meals. Dumbells and other gymnastics, shampooing and friction, with a flesh-brush or rough woollen glove, are very beneficial. Sponging with cold water and soap every morning is a very good practice. Too much attention cannot be paid to the state of the skin, for its functions are no less important than those of the intestines or lungs. Many persons in good health are apt to neglect these apparent trifles, nor do they think of attending to them until their health is broken.

When restlessness occurs during the hot nights it is best to get up and get cool by walking up and down the room, taking a turn out of doors, or by changing one's night clothes, and going to a fresh bed.

18. AMUSEMENTS.—These,of course, vary with the taste of the individual. Shooting engages the leisure hours of many. Of all sorts of this sport, snipe shooting is the most dangerous. These birds are found only in marshy miry bogs, the very hotbeds of fever, and can only be got at by plunging up to the knees in mud, with a burning hot sun overhead. Many sportsmen thus contract fever,