[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin s It was with
a perverted sense of humour that I watched the levies at crack of dawn this morning in face of that delightfully provocative article by Mr. Peter Somerville, " Painless Early Rising," in your issue of April 2nd.
My men are as near to nature as ean be imagined. A hard- headed, lovable lot of ruffians, who live on fish, dates and milk, and have a wholesome dislike of tea and coffee. Yet they do not open their eyes in the morning as easily and naturally as a flower unfolds its petals on the rising of the sun !
No.
It is a scientific fact, I believe, that vitality is lowest at 2 a.m. to 4 a.m., when sick must be watched before they die, and no man would deny that a sentry's vigil from two to four is the worst in the twenty-four. Yet according to Mr. Somer- ville's theory surely vitality should be nearly at the summit of that curve when roses take notice of the sun ?
In a sense, I have personally been a victim in this affair of milk, and as a subaltern I remember water waggoning " for over three months—retrenchment on account of my moneylender's pigheadedness. For a month there was a steady mental depression, which bears out Mr. Somerville's view, but that was nothing to the further depression of the second month, which augured something cyclonic in the third. The M.O. noticed that one, usually robust, had become frail, and advised milk. I meekly obeyed but life seemed slowly to ebb away. Then my moneylender's heart softened, and I have been fit ever since excepting for a short, serious illness when my wife persistently advocated vast quantities of barley water. I only mention this as a warning. for those who Might also be imposed upon " for their own good."
Forgive me if I have joined issue tardily ; mine is a wail from far Sohar, where your paper is like an oasis in the in- tellectual desert.— I am, Sir, &c.,
l'ersian Gulf. A. W. G. STEPHENS.
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