ABSTRACT
When I went back to the factory I found three miserable individuals leaning upon the verandah balustrade, hollow - faced, nervous, and irritable, which is perhaps the usual state of most white men at 6 A.M. ill Western Africa. One of them was sucking the inevitable thermometer, for on board ship and in the factories a European is anxious about his temperature the moment he awakes. If it varies from 98 0 to 100 0 he begins work satisfied; if over 100 0 he wears a harassed look all day, and wonders when he will be forced
to roll himself in thick blankets, and with the aid of hot lime-water endeavour to check the fever by unlimited perspiration. This is frequently effectual, and the juice of green limes is an excellent febrifuge. It is scarcely strange that the temptation to resort to stimulants is too strong for many men. They have hard and trying work to do, they awake unfit for anything, and they know that alcohol, of which there is generally an ample store, will supply at least temporary energy.
