S18 GOLUMBO. 
The sea coasts of the southern parts of the island, are extremely 
healthy. That scourge of the country, the jungle fever, has always 
been caught in the interior, but precisely in what situations has 
never been positively ascertained. It is in general supposed that 
an exposure to the night dews is peculiarly deleterious ; the summer 
is most unhealthy. Calomel is the chief medicine used ; it con- 
quers the fever, but in general leaves the patient without sufficient 
strength to recover. They say the stomach will not bear the bark, 
but some have administered it with success, by adding to it large 
doses of laudanum. That horrible and loathsome disease, the 
leprosy, is by no means unfrequent. An hospital has been estab- 
lished for it, where the receipt given in the Asiatic Researches has 
had a fair trial, but, I am sorry to add, without success, though 
the quantity of arsenic has, I believe, sometimes proved fatal. It 
was tried in every manner, and with every other medicine, which 
might be supposed to aid its operations. A complaint, as far as I 
have learnt, peculiar to the island, is the berri-berri ; it is in fact 
a dropsy, that frequently destroys in a few days. I observed the 
elephantiasis at Galle, and Golumbo. Mr. Christie, the head of 
the medical staff of the island, is a very able man, and from him 
much important medical information may be acquired. The 
number of surgeons on the staff is by no means equal to the wants 
of the island, even if it were more healthy. The garrisons are so 
small, and at such a distance from each other, frequently thirty or 
forty miles, that a regiment requires four or five surgeons instead 
of two. As it is, many garrisons are at that distance from any me- 
dical assistance. The sending out of medical stores has also been 
shamefully neglected at home; fortunately, on application to 
