Perhaps the American missionary carries sobriety too far. In
dangerous tropical regions, where there is little appetite and
less nutritious diet, where exertion of mind and body easily
exhaust vitality, and where "diffusible stimulants" must often
take the place of solids, he dies first who drinks water. The
second is the man who begins with an "eye-opener" of "brandy-
pawnee," and who keeps up excitement by the same means through
the day. The third is the hygienic sciolist, who drinks on
principle poor "Gladstone" and thin French wines, cheap and
nasty; and the survivor is the man who enjoys a quantum suff. of
humming Scotch and Burton ales, sherry, Madeira, and port, with a
modicum of cognac. This has been my plan in the tropics from the
beginning, when it was suggested to me by the simplest exercise
of the reasoning faculties. "A dozen of good port will soon set
you up!" said the surgeon to me after fever. Then why not drink
port before the fever?
I have said something upon this subject in "Zanzibar City,
Island, and Coast" (i. p. 180), it will bear repetition. Joseph
Dupuis justly remarks: "I am satisfied, from my own experience,
that many fall victims from the adoption of a course of training
improperly termed prudential; viz.
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