Chap. II.] HEALTH. 79 



and to a certain extent tlie anticipation appears to be 

 correct, but it by no means justifies the assumption of 

 general immunity. Tliougli less obnoxious to specific 

 disease, debility and delicacy are tlie frequent results of 

 habitual seclusion and avoidance of the solar hglit. 

 These, added to more obvious causes of occasional illness, 

 suggest the necessity of vigorous exertion and regular 

 exercise as indispensable protectives. 



If suitably clothed, and not mjudiciously fed, children 

 may remain in the island till eight or ten years of age, 

 wlien anxiety is excited by the attenuation of the frame 

 and the apparent absence of strength in proportion to 

 development. These symptoms, the result of relaxed tone 

 and defective nutrition, are to be remedied by change of 

 chmate either to the more lofty ranges of the mountains, 

 or, more providently, to Europe. 



Effects on Europeans already Diseased. — To persons 

 akeady suffering from disease, the experiment of a resi- 

 dence in Ceylon is one of questionable propriety. Those 

 of a scrofulous diathesis need not consider it hazardous, 

 as experience does not show tliat in such there is any 

 greater susceptibihty to local or constitutional disorders, 

 or that when these are present, there is greater difficulty 

 in thek removal. 



To those threatened with consumption, the island 

 may be supposed to offer some advantages in tlie equa- 

 bihty of the temperature, and the comparative quies- 

 cence of the lungs from reduced necessity for respira- 

 tory effort. Besides, the choice of climates presented 

 by Ceylon enables a patient, by the easy cliange of resi- 

 dence to a different altitude and temperature, avoiding 

 the heats of one period and the dry winds of another, 

 to check to a great extent the predisposing causes likely 

 to lead to the development of tubercle. This, with 

 attention to clothing and systematic exercise as pre- 

 ventives of active disease, may serve to restrain the 

 fiuther ]:)rogress thougli it fail to eradicate the tendency 

 to })ht]iisis. But wlicu already the formation of tu- 



