436 



JOURNAL R A. ft. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. III. 



when, supposing that any persons could be found so lost to 

 right feeling as to make such an attempt, their host would 

 feel it necessary to have recourse to an artifice, in order to 

 preserve sobriety which became him as a clergyman, without 

 being guilty of what would be regarded as inhospitality 

 towards his guests. The state o£ things of which such 

 anecdotes are indicative has passed away, never, it is to be 

 hoped, to return, and, as a consequence of its departure, 

 liver complaints and fevers are less frequent and less deadly ; 

 and it is now felt that, when temperance is observed, and 

 ordinary prudence exercised in avoiding what are known to 

 be causes of disease, life is not, to most constitutions, materi- 

 ally more insecure in this country than in Europe. It is 

 quite possible that we may still have something to learn on 

 this head, and that an improvement in medical practice, 

 together with an increased diffusion of the knowledge of 

 those physiological principles on which the preservation of 

 health depends, may lead to such results as will induce 

 Insurance Companies to grant policies on terms still more 

 favourable than those which they at present offer to persons 

 resident in Ceylon. It is not my intention, however, at 

 present to enter upon this wide field, but merely to lay 

 before you certain statistics connected with one branch 

 of the subject, which my position has enabled me to 

 procure. 



While the increased security of the life of the adult 

 European resident in Ceylon is generally admitted, it is still 

 felt to be a hazardous experiment to attempt to bring up the 

 children of European parents in this climate ; and many of 

 us have had painful experience in our own families of the 

 necessity of sending our children to England, when they 

 have just arrived at that age when parental care is beginning 

 to be of the greatest importance for the formation of their 

 characters, and when the domestic affections can best be 

 cultivated. If this could be shewn to be a mistake, arising 



