A History of Assam c12.147

c12.147

not free from rain. In the cold weather the diseases of cold and moisture affect foreigners with greater severity than natives, while in summer excessive secretion of bile grasps foreigners more violently than natives. The people of this country are free from certain fatal and loathsome diseases—such as leprosy, white leprosy, elephantiasis, cutaneous eruptions, goitre and hydrocele,—which prevail in Bengal. They are also immune from many other lingering maladies. The air and water of its hills are like the destructive Simoom and deadly poison to natives and strangers alike. Its plains, by reason of their being girt about by hills, tend to breed melancholy and fear.