No. 12.— 1860-1.] ON HEALTH AND DIET. 



437 



from an injudicious mode of treating our children, there are, 

 I suppose, few European parents resident in the Island, 

 who would not hail the discovery as removing one of the 

 most painful circumstances attendant upon the expatriation 

 which is their own lot in life. Now, this is just the con- 

 clusion to which I have been led, by an examination of the 

 records of the Asylum for Military Orphan Boys. 



That Institution has been established for about twenty 

 years, during the last eighteen of which it has been under 

 superintendence. There are at present 22 boys resident 

 in it ; there have been as many as 31 or 32 at one time ; the 

 average being not I think under the present number. 

 During the last eighteen years, only four deaths have 

 occurred in the establishment, two of which cannot be fairly 

 regarded as belonging to its ordinary rate of mortality, 

 inasmuch as one was the result of leprosy, (which must 

 be regarded as an entirely exceptional case,) while the other 

 was that of a deformed idiot, labouring under confirmed 

 disease, who, being left entirely destitute, was received into 

 the Asylum merely that he might die there in peace. The 

 ordinary rate of mortality, therefore, making these deductions, 

 is very little over one half per cent, per annum. ; and even if 

 we include the two extraordinary cases which I have men- 

 tioned, it will amount to no more than one in ninety-nine ; 

 and even the higher of these rates can scarcely be regarded 

 as indicating any peculiar unhealthiness in the climate* 

 Nor does the appearance of the boys lead to a different 

 conclusion from that suggested by the low rate of mortality 

 amongst them. They do not, of course, exhibit the florid 

 complexions which are looked for in healthy school-boys in 

 Europe ; but they are deficient neither in strength, health, 

 nor spirits, and amongst them might be pointed out some 

 who, physically, are inferior to few who have been brought 

 up in a more temperate climate. I could name one young 

 man, who having entered the Asylum at the age of 12, left 

 it when he was 19, in order to be employed on a Coconut 



