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JOURNAL R. A. S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. III. 



the atmosphere at the same time hot and loaded with 

 moisture, a combination which is always especially relaxing 

 to the constitution. 



Of course sportsmen and others whose occupation leads them 

 to unhealthy districts, mast expect to be liable to fever ; but 

 any one sleeping in a tent night alter night among the 

 marshes of Essex, or the fens of Lincolnshire, would be 

 equally so. Medical men do not meet with half the 

 diseases in this Island which they are accustomed to see in 

 England, and the most common complaints occurring here 

 viz., fever and dysentery, are generally so easily cured, when 

 properly treated at their commencement, that I cannot but 

 conclude, that to self-neglect is to be attributed a very large 

 proportion of the deaths among our countrymen in Ceylon. 



There is, however, another cause, and I fear a nearly equally 

 great cause of mortality among the adult male portion of the 

 community. I allude to the far greater indulgence in 

 spirituous liquors which obtains here among young men, over 

 what the same class are accustomed to in England. I 

 am sure that any one, on recalling the deaths among male 

 Europeans Avhich have taken place within his memory, will at 

 once admit the truth of this assertion, that drink has had, 

 directly or indirectly, a large share in the mortality. The 

 constitution becomes undermined by the constant indulgence 

 in this habit, and is unable to resist the attack of what might 

 otherwise have been a trifling complaint. I believe that the 

 custom of taking spirits and water regularly twice a day, 

 on board ship on the voyage out from home, is one great 

 cause of this ; and when we consider the solitary life often 

 led by Planters on Coffee Estates, it is hardly to be wondered 

 at that the habit thus acquired should be difficult to break 

 through. 



1 believe that the mode of diet of Europeans in India 

 generally, is very much against a continuance of good health : 

 and here I feel that I am entering on a subject which must 

 necessarily meet with some opposition ; for there are few 



