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JOURNAL ? R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. IX. 



under three heads : " First, those which occur immediately ; 

 second, those which are produced slowly and gradually ; 

 third, those which arise occasionally and unexpectedly from 

 the agency of peculiar causes. As to the immediate effects 

 which result from the transition of the body from a tempe- 

 rate climate into a tropical one, we have ample evidence 

 derived from the accounts of voyagers ; such as disagree- 

 able sensation of heat, acceleration of the heart's action, 

 increased perspiration, langour, restlessness, and thirst, 

 diminished appetite and general indisposition"; but these do 

 not constitute actual disease, nor do they necessitate active 

 medical treatment. " Europeans landing in Ceylon are 

 liable to few ailments due to immediate causes." Prickly 

 heat {lichen tropicus) is perhaps the most common. "During 

 the wet seasons," says Percival, "the Ceylonese are subject 

 to a variety of diseases. Every man is here his own physi- 

 cian, and the mode of cure adopted is of course very simple. 

 A plaister of herbs is applied to the part affected, and I have 

 seen the same remedy applied to a man in a high fever, when 

 his whole body was daubed over with this ointment. A 

 skill in medical herbs is almost universal among this race, 

 and they have a variety of prescriptions for curing diseases 

 by their application. This knowledge is owing to their 

 peculiar fondness for gardening, rearing all sorts of plants, 

 an employment in which they are engaged from their 

 infancy, and it is from among them that the European 

 gentlemen are anxious to procure their gardeners." 



Small-pox seems to have been, as it still is now, the most 

 dreaded disease. It has doubtless been the one great cause 

 of the depopulation of the Island, and Forbes thinks it was 

 this visitation which was described as the " red-eyed demon 

 of pestilence " that swept the country of half its people in 

 the third century, under the reign of Sri Sangabo. It is 

 called mahd ledda, or " the great sickness," and is 

 believed to be " a direct infliction of the gods." Percival 

 states that persons dying of this disease were considered 



