If it be a turbulent, rough, cloudy, stormy weather, men are sad, lumpish, and much dejected, angry, waspish, dull and melancholy.—Robert Burton.1
Why does long residence tend to annul adjustment to the tropics? The explanation is complex and involves many functions of both mind and body.2 Inasmuch as all authorities agree that man needs efficient sweat glands, it is odd that disorders of sweating have failed to gain full notice in relation to the vicious results of heat. Despite intense study of the normal activity of the sweat glands, it has hitherto been true that little was known of the ill effects of their incompetence on tropical health. Such information as was available dealt chiefly with congenital deficiences of the glands. But the congenital disease is a medical curiosity, and its study solves little of the larger problem of acquired intolerance to heat.
However, as a result