CUAP..U.] 



HEALTH. 



77 



supplied as best suited to the climate. With a moderate 

 use of flesh meat, vegetables, and especially farinaceous 

 food, are chiefly to be commended. The latter is ren- 

 dered attractive by the unrivalled excellence of the Sin- 

 ghalese in the preparation of innumerable curries l , each 

 tempered by the delicate creamy juice expressed from 

 the flesh of the coco-nut after it has been reduced to a 

 pulp. Nothing of the same class in India can bear a 

 comparison with the piquant delicacy of a curry in Ceylon, 

 composed of fresh condiments and compounded by the 

 skilful hand of a native. 



The use of fruit. Fruits are abundant and wholesome ; 

 but with the exception of oranges, pineapples, the luscious 

 mango and the indescribable " rambutan," 2 for want of 

 horticultural attention they are inferior in flavour, and 

 soon cease to be alluring. 



Wine. Wine has of late years become accessible to all 

 in the island, and has thus, in some degree, been substi- 

 tuted for brandy ; the abuse of which at former periods is 

 commemorated in the records of those fearful disorders of 

 the liver, derangements of the brain, exhausting fevers, 

 and visceral diseases, which characterise the medical 

 annals of earlier times. With a firm adherence to tem- 

 perance in the enjoyment of stimulants, and moderation 

 in the pleasures of the table, with attention to exercise 

 and frequent resort to the bath, it may be confidently 

 asserted that health in Ceylon is as capable of preser- 

 vation and life as susceptible of enjoyment, as in any 

 country within the tropics. 



Exposure. Prudence and foresight are, however, 

 as indispensable there as in any other climate to escape 

 well-understood risks. Catarrhs and rheumatism are 



1 The popular error of thinking 

 curry to be an invention of the Por- 

 tuguese in India is disproved by the 

 mention in the Rajamh of its use in 

 Ceylon in the second century before 

 the Christian era, and in the Muha- 



wanso in the fifth century of it. This 

 subject is mentioned elsewhere : see 

 chapter on the Arts and Sciences of 

 the Singhalese, Vol. I. p. 437. 



2 For a description of the rambutau 

 see Vol. I. p. 120., II. p. 115. 



