ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



171 



Notes on the Climate and Salubrity of Putlam. — By ALEXAN- 

 DER Oswald Brodie, Esq.— (Bead 26th February, 1848.) 



It is a matter not only of scientific interest, but also of 

 practical utility, to observe and to describe the climate and 

 sanitary condition of places bitherto neglected or little known. 

 The attainment even of a mere approximation to the truth is 

 not to be despised where circumstances seem to forbid the hope 

 of procuring perfectly accurate results for some time to come. 

 To give a short, and it is hoped tolerably correct account of 

 the climate and sanitary phenomena of Putlam, is the sole 

 object of the present remarks. The data on which I have relied 

 are partly my own observations — in a greater degree however, 

 various registers which have been kept by the late Command 

 dant — the present Government Agent, and the various Medical 

 Sub-Assistants at the station; they extend throughout a period 

 of eight years (1839 — 1846), and, though not recorded with that 

 minute accuracy and regularity which is desirable, will yet, it 

 is supposed, yield tolerably correct results — owing to the length- 

 ened period which they include. 



It will be necessary in the first place, shortly to describe 

 the topographical position of the place. 



Putlam (in lat. 8° 2' 50"— long. 79° 53' 38") is situate 

 on the eastern shore of the gulf of Calpentyn, an arm of 

 the sea about eighteen miles in length, and from two to four in 

 breadth, which to the north communicates with the ocean by 

 an opening about two miles in breadth — and which a short dis- 

 tance to the south of the town contracts, but is continued by 

 means of a canal and a series of lakes and back-waters till it 

 again meets the sea three miles to the north of Chilaw. The 



greater portion of the gulf is very shallow, being not more 



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