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CEYLON BRANCH ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



REMARKS ON THE COLLECTION OF STATISTICAL 

 INFORMATION IN CEYLON. 



BY JOHN CAPPER^ ESQ, 



(Read on the 1st November 1845.^ 



It is within the memory of most of us, that the labours of 

 the statist may be said to have commenced. 



Until these few years past, it was usual to account them 

 as uninteresting, and entirely devoid of all practical utility : 

 the laborious enquiries, however, of the London Statistical 

 Society, as well as of its provincial branches, have been the 

 means of opening up such a mine of unexplored information, 

 with reference to the moral and physical condition of the 

 great mass of the population of large towns, that whilst the 

 public have been astonished at the facts brought to light, it 

 has at the same time acknowledged the service rendered by 

 the labourers. It is to such enquiries that we may trace the 

 appointment of t( the Committee on the health of Towns " by 

 the House of Commons: and since then, the establishment of 

 public baths and wash-houses for the poor, and of the forma- 

 tion of the Sanatarium for the middle classes. 



In Ceylon, as was justly remarked by our President, in 

 his opening address, little, if any thing, has been yet attempted 

 in the way of statistical research, the fields of information 

 are to this time untrodden, and although there are many 

 circumstances in this Colony calculated to discourage the 

 labourer and perplex his enquiries, still much may be accom- 

 plished, certainly quite enough to repay him for his toil. 



The progress of a nation or a Colony cannot be rightly 

 appreciated, without statistical data whereon to found con- 

 clusions, and there can be little doubt but that Governments 

 would do well to lend their hearty co-operation by giving 



