Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/235

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
IN INDIA.
215

in an in-door temperature of 82° without due precaution.

Colds are also frequently caught by the punkah-bearer going to sleep, till awoke by his master, bathed in perspiration. Anxious to make amends for his neglect he pulls with double vigour, and entails a cold upon the sleeper.

3. CALCULUS.—This was at one time thought to be a rare disease amongst natives but late experience shows it to be as prevalent as in temperate zones. Many civil surgeons have operated in hundreds of cases within their own districts, and with remarkable success. Even natives, uneducated at any school, ignorant of anatomy and self-taught, operate with a degree of success that surprises the educated practitioner.

4. GOITRE.—is frequent along the outer range of the Himalayan, especially on limestone formations, but it is not considered a very grievous evd further than the inconvenience of its size and weight. Both sexes seem equally liable to it. It is unknown in the plains.

5. ELEPHANTIASIS.—in one or both legs is almost peculiar to Bengal proper, and is more common in the male sex than the female, and in mature age rather than in youth. It also is looked upon as an inconvenience rather than as a serious evil. The disease is almost unknown in the north-west provinces.