Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/89

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IN INDIA.
69

mental to most of his acquaintances enjoying as good health as he.

On arriving for the first time in a tropical climate, the stranger must be prepared to expect some trifling complaints, but temperance and discretion are his best directors. Above all things, let him be on his guard against the epidemic of new comers—hypochondriasis—as the greatest enemy to health and happiness, as the mildew that nips the bud of his new existence in its opening. But more let him guard against idleness, as the parent of hypochondriasis. It is essential to the enjoyment of a sound mind in a sound body that both be kept in constant exercise; and if duty be light, other resources must be brought into play. Nothing is more common than for official men to complain of the irksomeness of duty;but a month's idleness generally makes them glad to be back at their desks.

12. INDISCRETIONS.—Man's own indiscretion is perhaps as frequent a cause of bad health as climate. One man gets coup de soleil shooting snipe in the heat of the day; another catches fever beating the jungle for heavy game; another gets mauled by a tiger or a bear;and another breaks his leg hunting. Some drink themselves, some eat themselves, some sleep themselves,some gamble themselves, some drug themselves into a state