33 



GEOGRAPHICAL COLLECTIONS. 



Hospitals for Animals in India. — Early historians of the countries on this side 

 the Ganges relate, that the Indians maintained regular hospitals for the lower 

 animals, and that there were devotees who, from love of them, voluntarily gave 

 the use of their bodies for a night to nourish the parasitical insects which . infest 

 the human frame. This disgusting fact has been authenticated in our days by 

 the inhabitants of Surat ; and it is stated that there does not exist a man so robust 

 as to resist above two hours the martyrdom which is consequent on this singular 

 act of devotion. The nature of the hospitals, whose sole object is to receive and 

 support every species of animal without distinction, has also been recently ascertain- 

 ed by Lieutenant Burns, and described by him in a memoir read before the Asiatic 

 Society of London, on the hospital of Surat, which he had visited in all its details. 



The hospital founded at Surat by the Banians, contained, in 1823, a great num- 

 ber of animals : there were in particular a quantity of infirm oxen and cows ; but 

 diseased sheep, goats, and fowls, had also an asylum there. There was no excep- 

 tion to the admission of species of animals, — all kinds were received, whatever 

 might be their number, or the place whence they came. At the entrance of the 

 establishment is a wooden house 25 feet long, and having a platform raised eight 

 feet from the ground. In this place are kept immense numbers of insects, com- 

 ])rising all the species which are usually found in the most miserable dwellings. 

 The number is so great, that on looking into this hideous receptacle, nothing 

 can be distinguished but one vast moving mass. 



Mr. Burns states that similar hospitals exist in all the great towns of the 

 western part of India ; and he names, amongst others, the city of Aryar, Cutch, 

 where he saw a hospital of rats, containing 5000 of these animals, fed regularly 

 with meal, obtained by a tax levied upon the inhabitants of the city. 



Cultivation of Indigo in India. — A memoir on this subject, communicated to 

 the Agricultural Society of Calcutta by Mr. Alexander, contains some very cu- 

 rious statistical data. It results from the investigations of many creditable per- 

 sons, who have had it in their power to consult the archives of government, that 

 indigo, the cultivation of which was formerly unknown on the banks of the 

 Oanges, now occupies a surface of 738 square miles on the sides of this river. 

 The agricultural and preparatory operations which it requires, employ two mil- 

 lions and a half of inhabitants, who obtain their livelihood by this labour. The 

 land where it is cultivated, the fertility of which is increased by the annual in- 

 undation of the Ganges, is augmented 100 per cent, in value. From an average 

 of many years, its mean produce is estimated at thirty millions of francs. In- 

 temperate weather has a powerful influence over indigo, whence its cultivation has 

 been necessarily abandoned in the West Indies. From official documents, Ben- 

 gal exported, 



It is known that, notwithstanding the variations of produce, the cultivation 

 of indigo has considerably increased in British India, and that it has doubled its 

 amount in the course of the last eight years— iy^ G/o6^. 



VOL. III. E 



