The Daily News THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25. TROPICAL DISEASES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 27, 25 February 1909, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25. TROPICAL DISEASES.

A cable message from Loudon in this i morning's paper announcing that Sir '. Sydenham Clarke, Governor of Bombay, has opened a congress at Bombay re lating to tropical diseases, is a matter of more than passing interest, though few may pause to consider the significance of the announcement. Though, necessarily, the subject does not touch New Zealanders on their own soil intimately, it is an exceedingly good thing that British opinion in various parts ol the Empire has lately awakened to the very great importance of a better knowledge and understanding of tropical diseases, it is meet that it should be so, especially among the doctors of a nation which possesses such large colonics and dependencies within the tropics, or in places where the so-called tropical diseases are common. These illnesses have for many generation.* taken toll of our countrymen who have gone abroad to spread British rule or trade. They have I caused an infinite amount of misery and loss, and are yet but very imperfectly understood. Still real efforts are at

last being taken for the alleviation of the sick and for the suppression of the. causes of sickness by the new schools o' tropical diseases, and money is being spent freely by the Governments to forward the investigations. Under these circumstances it is not a little curious that the regulation of clothing has had so little place in the thoughts of those who are seeking for the causes of illness and for the remedies needed to keep men clear of it. There is little doubt but that the present fashion of dressing in the tropics, in much the same clothing as is suitable for a cold] climate, has a great deal more to do with the enervating effect of a hot climate upon Europeans than is usually supposed, and that a reasonable change in the fashion would do more to preserve health than half the drugs nowtaken. It is a universally recognised

fact that the action of the skin keeps down the temperature of the blood to normal during great external heat. The perspiration and its rapid evaporation cools the whole surface blood and prevents the fever which, inevitably follows, if the skin from any cause stops work. Knowing this, it seems more than ridi

culous to cover up nine-tenths of the skin in such a way and with such ma terial as to prevent its evaporation and

the consequent cooling of tile Wood, throwing most of the work on tile face, neck unci hands. As an illustration, .on a very hot day in warm countries it is no uncommon thing for troops on' parade to lie struck by sunstroke or to fall out exhausted. It is an almost unheard of thing for a man to be struck while playing cricket on tile same day. Yet there are probably'as many men, if not more, playing cricket than there arc troops on parade; the former having no head covering or at the most a small clotli cap, tire latter Iteing in theii helmets. The reason is that the cricketer lias on light and airy clothing, the soldier is in cloth with a padded coat. In old days consumptive people were kept shut up in hot and stuffy rooms, and they died; now they arc freely exposed to the air, however cold, and re-1 covcries are not unusual. It is much the smae with our bodies. Wo keep them shut up in stuffiness and perspiration and then wonder' that they get out of order. In a few years it will probably be discovered that half of the illnesses of Europeans in tropical countries are duo to the absurd conservatism of wearing clothes suitable enough for health at home, but utterly unfitted for a hot and enervating climate. ON THE FOURTH PAGE. Commercial, Education Board. Settling the Land. Immoral Literature. Alleged Illicit Liquor. Tlie .Maoris 80 Years Ago. Repairs to School Buildings.