No. 32.— 1886.] MEDICAL HISTOKY OF CEYLON. 319 



regiment, came from the Madras Presidency. They were 

 a useful addition to the garrison, and were capable of much 

 exertion when kindly treated. They were sober, temperate, 

 and submissive, but extremely filthy, and owing to their 

 neglecting to provide against sudden changes of temperature, 

 were more liable to intermittent fever, inflammation of the 

 lungs, dysentery, and diarrhoea ; Malabar itch was, as may be 

 expected, very common among them. 



Distress was caused in 1812, 1813, and 1814 by repeated 

 droughts resulting in failing of the crops of rice. It was 

 deplorable, says Bertolacci, to see the numerous children of 

 the Ceylonese families reduced and emaciated for want of 

 food, and depending upon parents who were in no way able 

 to provide for their large families. No substitute could be 

 found for the staple article of diet for the native troops, and 

 consequently privation and exposure led to much suffering. 

 At Minery, between Kandy and Trincomalee, fifty -three men 

 of the 19th regiment were attacked with fever, thirty -three 

 died, and twenty recovered ; but several of them had their 

 constitutions much impaired. Of thirty -three artillery men, 

 eleven died. 



In December, 1820, there were thirty -two military stations 

 in the interior, the chief posts being Kandy, Badulla, Aliput 

 ( fifteen miles east of Badulla), Ratnapura, Fort King and 

 Kurunegala, all of which were hospital stations. The Rev. 

 Mr. Cordiner records that a small outpost in 1803, Kottadeniya 

 * (thirteen miles from Kurunegala), was so unhealthy that 

 of seventy men of the 65th regiment who marched to it, 

 every one was seized with fever, and within a month 

 Lieutenant Hutchings and two privates were the only persons 

 of the party who remained alive. 



It will be interesting, before proceeding further, to glance 

 at the nature and extent to which the principal diseases 

 which existed in Ceylon prevailed in the earlier years of the 

 present century, soon after the British settlement in this 

 Colony. Davy considered the effects of the climate of Ceylon 



