No. 32. — 1886.] MEDICAL HISTORY OF CEYLON. 311 



dred and fifty men as cemetery-keepers and sextons, besides 

 two hundred night-soil men, a small number of day and 

 night guards, and a small army of sweepers. 



Portuguese Period. 



In the history written by a Portuguese author, Juan 

 Ribeyro, in 1685, there is only a very brief description given 

 of the diseases which prevailed in Ceylon at that period, 

 and I can find no allusion to the methods of treatment 

 adopted by medical men of his own nation. The Portuguese 

 priests and captains of companies appear to have been in 

 medical charge of the garrisons of Colombo, Kalutara, 

 Negombo, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Jaffna, and Mannar.* 

 Ribeyro states that most of the Portuguese on their first 

 arrival were subject to bowel complaints, fevers, and other 

 diseases, to which the natives are not liable. He thought 

 that the Sinhalese retained their health by frequent baths, 

 and states that when he first came out to Ceylon he had two 

 illnesses in the first two years. He then adopted the native 

 habit of bathing twice daily, and during the sixteen subse- 

 quent years he lived here he never became ill. Frequent 

 bathing is acknowledged to be one of the best means of 

 preserving health, and is practised by the natives to this day ; 

 but it is in strange contradiction to the experience of an old 

 colonist of 70 years, an Italian, now dead, who attributed his 

 immunity from disease to his never bathing ! 



Ribeyro describes " beri-beri " (bere-bere J as a disease to 

 which Europeans were very liable. He recommended as the 

 best remedy pork and biscuit, with palm wine (toddy) and 

 smoking, to be persevered in for three months. As a 



* A correspondent points ont that Le Grand has not followed Ribeyro 

 accurately here. " It is not strictly correct to say that the Portuguese 

 priests and captains of companies appear to have been in medical charge 

 of the garrisons of Colombo, &c. Ribeyro (Bk. I., chap, xiii) distinctly 

 says that when the soldiers were seriously ill they were sent to the hospital 

 at Colombo, and that the surgeon had to certify the necessity of this : Le 

 Grand omits this statement." — Hon. Sec. 



