ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, 



CEYLON BRANCH. 

 — - 



HEALTH AND DISEASE IN CEYLON, 



Br Boyd Moss, Esq., f.r.c.s. 



OPINIONS vary much concerning the healthiness of the 

 climate of the Island of Ceylon, many considering that good 

 health is quite incompatible with a prolonged residence here, 

 and it is with a view to enquiry concerning the truth of 

 this supposition, that I have written the few following pages, 

 hoping that they may possibly be of some eventual service 

 to my fellow-countrymen. 



There have been, of late, many melancholy deaths among 

 us, — friends taken away whom we have seen in apparently 

 perfect health but a few days before ; and it is a question 

 of great moment and interest whether this fatality is an 

 unavoidable result of a residence in this climate, or whether 

 it can be proved that the increased mortality in this, over 

 more temperate regions, is owing to some fault in our 

 manner of life, or to our own carelessness and neglect of 

 ordinary precautions in avoiding the causes of disease. 



Now, I do not hesitate to express an opinion that we may, 

 with ordinary care, pass many years in this Island, without 

 more cause, or with very little more cause, for serious com- 

 plaints, than in England. I believe that a decrease of bodily 

 vigour, shewing itself in more or less disinclination to exertion, 

 is the only unavoidable result of a residence here, and even 

 this applies only to some parts of the Island, where we find 



A 



