A FEW HINTS.
I shall give the following hints as they occurred to me, and as I noted them down at the time when in Africa:—
Medicine Chest.—Should be of teak, covered with zinc, with copper edges and corners. The bottom should be first covered externally, to enable the wet to drain off without touching the wood. The expensive canteens purchased of Messrs. Silver and Co., although covered with metal on the top and sides, had no metal beneath; thus they were a prey to damp and insects.
All bottles in medicine chest should have numbers engraved on the glass to correspond with an index painted on the inside of the lid. Insects and damp quickly destroy gilding or ordinary paper labels.
Seidlitz powders and all effervescent medicines should be packed in wide-mouthed, stoppered bottles, but never in papers.
Matches.—Bryant and May's "Victoria Matches" will stand the damp of the tropics beyond all others.
Tarpaulins.—Should be true mackintosh; but no other preparation of india-rubber will stand the heat of the tropics. No. 2 canvas painted is better than any preparation of tar, which sticks when folded together.
All tarpaulins should be 12 feet square, with large metal eyelet holes and strong lines. If larger, they are too heavy.
Bottles.—All wine or liquor bottles should have the necks dipped in bottle-wax thickly. Metallic capsules will be bitten through and the corks destroyed by cockroaches.
Milk.—Crosse and Blackwell's "liquid cream" is excellent. That of the Anglo-Swiss Company was good at the commencement, but it did not keep sweet after two years.