<br >I was astonished to discover， on being threatened with a<br >two-month exile to the primary jungles of Borneo， just<br >how fast a man can read.<br > Powerful as your scholarly instincts may be， there is no<br >matching the strength of that irrational desire to find a<br >means of keeping your head upon your shoulders; of<br >retaining your frontal appendage in its accustomed place;<br >of barring 1，700 different species of parasitic worm from<br >your bloodstream and Wagler s pit viper from just about<br >anywhere; of removing small， black， wild-boar ticks from<br >your crutch with minimum discomfort (you do it with<br >Sellotape); of declining to wear a globulating necklace of<br >leeches all day long; of sidestepping amoebic and bacillary<br >dysentery， yellow and blackwater and dengue fevers，<br >malaria， cholera， typhoid， rabies， hepatitis， tuberculosis and<br ><br >