'• qi4s \'\- ' ' ,' STATISTICAL SKETCH 



Brahmin families, all drink a species of whisky there manufactured, either 

 from rice or barley : at the same time, they will not touch the common kinds 

 ' - of spirit, as prepared in the plains ; the objection to the latter arising from the 

 mode in which the liquor is made, as well as from the caste of people by 

 \ whom the manufacture is carried on, whereas the GerJvwal spirit is prepared 



by Hindus of the Rajput caste, and is fermented by the juice of particular 

 roots, against the use of which no religious prejudice prevails. Intoxication 

 is rare, and takes place only at the religious festivals. 



The mildness of the temperature of the hills would lead to the expecta- 

 ''■f tion, that the inhabitants would enjoy an exemption from most of the diseases 

 i- incident to less favored countries, and that a different state takes place, is 

 doubtless to be attributed, in a great measure, to the people themselves. By 

 ; \ their avocations, the labouring classes are occasionally compelled to descend 



into the vallies, the air of which is invariably noxious during half the year. 

 The purity of the natural atmosphere, is also counteracted by the state in 

 which the villages are kept : the dung heap forms a prominent object in front 

 of, and contiguous to every farm : the villages are commonly buried in dense 

 crops of gigantic hemp, while the houses are enveloped with a profusion of 

 -" scandent vegetables, such as cucumbers, water-melons, pumpkins, &c. &c. 

 From the united operation of these causes, during the worst season of the 

 year, general sickness prevails throughout the hills, in the shape of quotidian, 

 tertian and quartan fevers. Contagious and typhus fevers occasionally break 

 out, generated, no doubt, from an excess of the same cause. These always 

 exhibit the rapid and malignant features of plague, as does also the small 

 - pox, which proves extremely destructive whenever it visits the hills. 



Rheumatism is common during the cold weather. Cutaneous eruptions of 

 various Kinds are universally prevalent among all ranks, and are ascribed by 

 the inhabitants to the use of .spring water. Leprosy does not iippear so com- 

 mon as in the plains. To the above, must be added affections of the spleeil and 



