No. 12.— 1860-1.] HEALTH AND DISEASE IN CEYLON. 363 



tasks more difficult than that of convincing people that they 

 are wrong in habits, which time and custom have led them 

 to consider as necessary to their existence. 



Now, there is no greater error than an idea, which is by no 

 means an uncommon one, that we need a larger suppJy of 

 animal food in hot climates, than in temperate ones. The 

 reverse is the truth, and there is no better proof of this than 

 in the fact, that Ave continually see people obliged to have 

 recourse to bitters, before they can induce an appetite to enable 

 them to consume their food, nature evidently resisting this 

 overloading of the system with an unnecessary amount of 

 nourishment. Why is it that we fancy hot curries, chutnee, 

 and stimulants of a similar kind ? Not, as I shall presently 

 endeavour to shew, because they are the natural or necessary 

 food of a hot country, but because Ave find again the 

 stimulus of the chillies and spices necessary to enable us 

 to get through the meal ; the stomach becoming thereby in- 

 cited to attempt to digest more food than is good for it. I 

 really believe, that eating in India is very frequently, or I 

 should say very generally, more a means of passing time 

 than a necessity, and that in proportion as Ave are enabled 

 to take a larger amount of bodily exercise, Ave shall find the 

 taste for stimulants of the curry kind diminish. More 

 occupation for the mind, and increased means of amusement, 

 so often Avanting in English societies in India, would pro- 

 bably conduce to the same effect. 



Many Avill answer my arguments, by saying that Provi- 

 dence has suited the food of different countries to their 

 inhabitants, and that Ave, as inhabitants of India, cannot err in 

 following the manner of living, and the diet of the natives. 



Noav this results from an extremely superficial vieAV of the 

 matter, for, with few exceptions, the food of any nation 

 depends, not on the climate, but on the state of civilization of 

 that nation. Providence has provided suitable food for the 

 lower animals, because they are not gifted with reasoning 

 powers, but merely with instinct, that is, with a faculty 



