ventilation, with the exception of any stray chinks that may have been left through careless thatching of the roof.

I frequently noticed among African natives a certain brown, and often bloodshot, condition of the conjunctiva, though, on opening the lid a little wider than normal, the white of the eye not usually exposed was found to be clean and clear. This condition of things was, I came to the conclusion, produced by smoke. It will be easily understood that the atmosphere inside a hut of this description, with a fire in it, is so thick with smoke that an ordinary European, unused to the life, would be almost suffocated. The natives are, however, accustomed to it from their earliest days, and when sitting by a fire in the open air generally choose to place themselves to leeward, the smoke being a protection against the