While admiring her industry. Dr. House expressed foreboding very
early, writing six months after her arrival: “H. is really very
well now, but is far too industrious. I am curious to know the
effect a Siamese sun will have on such habits of diligence as she
has brought from the United States.”
That the tropical rays were not to be ignored, even by consecrated
diligence, early became manifested by a strange “burning sensation
in the top of the head,” from which Mrs. House began to suffer
within a year and which continued, sometimes with alarming
discomfort, throughout her residence in Siam. As the pain increased
rather than abated after seven years in the tropics, her physician
recommended a sojourn in her native climate in hopes of gaining
permanent relief. Accordingly Dr. and Mrs. House left Bangkok in
February, 1864, and spent two full years in America. The change
brought relief which at the time it was hoped would be permanent.