No. 32, — 1886.] MEDICAL HISTORY OF CEYLON. 329 



him to carry out several beneficent plans. He died, deeply 

 regretted, on May 22, 1859. 



In 1865 cholera broke out in a severe epidemic form 

 at the pearl fishery, and rapidly spread to Trincomalee, 

 Negombo, and Colombo. In the following year it occurred 

 in all the principal jails, but with care and attention it did 

 not spread, and there were but seventy-seven cases among 

 prisoners, with thirty-one deaths. The visitation was of 

 a sporadic character, until the close of that year, and then 

 broke out severely in an epidemic form in the Northern 

 Province. The whole of that Province was rapidly affected, 

 but the disease established itself more particularly in the 

 Peninsula of Jaffna ; 9,092 cases occurred in the Northern Pro- 

 vince, 8,696 of which were in the Peninsula of Jaffna, and 473 

 proved fatal. The disease was so much on the increase at the 

 close of the year that His Excellency Sir Hercules Robinson 

 appointed a Commission to visit Jaffna and report upon the 

 causes which led to the outbreak of cholera in that penin- 

 sula. The Commissioners worked with much zeal and 

 assiduity, conducted their inquiries on the spot, and after 

 personal inspection of the localities which suffered most 

 severely, and examination of the leading and well-informed 

 persons of all classes of the community of Jaffna, drew up a 

 voluminous and valuable report, which was laid before the 

 Legislative Council. The report consists of the history of 

 the epidemic, the modes of treatment adopted, the customs 

 and habit of life of the people as bearing on the epidemic, 

 recommendations for the sanitary improvements of the 

 town and villages of Jaffna, and measures of precaution to 

 be adopted against future outbreaks. In the Northern Pro- 

 vince 10,064 cases occurred during 1867, of which 6,862 

 died. The remaining provinces suffered comparatively little, 

 the total in these being only sixty-three cases, with forty- 

 two deaths. 



In 1867 Sir Hercules Robinson ordered an inquiry into the 

 causes of the depopulation of the Vanni, and this investiga- 



