( 56 ; 
gftinbleis. Arauseiuents such as are common in the 
home asylums would not be a success if they were 
introduced in the East. None of the inmates would 
know wh'it to make of a piano. The only form of 
music appreciated by the Cingalese is that result ing 
from the tom-tom and a gruesome imitation of a 
bagpipe. All other harmonies would be retjarded 
as weary, stale, and unprofitable. Since the beat- 
ing of tom-toms could hardly be permitted for the 
sake of the sanity of doctors and nurses — the 
routine seemed somewhat dull from the European 
gtand-point. But the native does not find it so. 
THK NURSING STAFF. 
The matron and all the head nurses are Burghers, 
whieh means that they are of Dutch extraction 
with a more less commingling of naln e bbiod. The 
Burgher of Ceylon eorresponde to the Eurasian of 
India, There is a large staff of Cingalese attemlaiitg 
in addition, who do duty of a non-nursing kind. 
The patient help to cook, do most of the domestic 
housework, keep the grounds in ordur, saw and 
assist the native and quite sane cooks. Some of 
the patienis, recognising the important official who 
accompanied me, removed the cloth from tiieir 
shoulder.", this being tlie highest mark of respect 
to his supsrioi's that a native can show. 
HOMICIDAL PATIENTS. 
Many of the patients are liomicldal, but the 
medical superintendent told us that epilepsy and 
epileptifoim varieties of insanity are not nearly 
as common in Ceylon as at home. An old lady 
was pointed out to us whose greatest boast and 
pride in life rests in the fact that she cut her 
husband literally and tru y into tiny shreds. She 
loijk' d very crude and primitive, as most of the 
Cingalese do, but there was nothing marke^lly 
ferocious ab out her nppearance. Among the other 
patients she is a kind of heroine from the complete 
and unusua' n .tureof her crime. The Cingalese 
temperament is rarely violent or cruel, though it 
is treacherous to a degree. It is a somewhat 
curious fact that the insane male natives we taw 
looked far more manly and decided than sane 
Cingalese men usually do. For it is a proverbial 
truth tlist the average Cingalese man lookt 
" ralilier more like a woman than a real woman 
does." It WHS veiy touching to see an old insane 
Dative woman bestowing such tender oare on her 
blin'l, ins'iiie, ftiid grown-up daughter, whom she 
tends and watches and cares for as though she 
were an infant. Maternal devotion is characcer- 
isitc of the natives of Ceylon, and cruelty or even 
mild uiikiiidness to children is very rare in the island 
COOKING AND THE DIET. 
The kitchen presented a novel scene. All the 
cookingf — an<l capital cooking, too — is done picnic 
fashion, by meant of a few smouldering lo^s and 
primitive saucepans. An old man patient — and 
we were relieved to hear that he was not clashed 
with the homicides— was braiidisliing a big knife 
and shiedding some fifty fre.-h half-coconuts for 
use in the breakfast cuiry. After the nut is cut 
in fine shreds, it is rolled with the inosi crude kind 
of native rolling pin, before it is added to the curry 
pot. Other patients were busily .si cing the Bombay 
duck and .somewhat "high" salted fish, without 
which and some twenty other odd vegeta' le and 
pickled coinpouniis the native curiy of tiie country 
would not be considered complete. Nice-looking 
rice "hoppers" were in process of prepaiution. 
the rice previously boiled being mixed with coco- 
nut oil into a consistent mass and fried in small 
portions, like pancaKe or fiittern. It takes & 
native to swallow, enjoy, and digest the strong 
rancid coconut oil which enteis so largely into 
Cingalese cookery. Some of the patients were 
lepers, for leprosy is not yet compulsorily segre- 
gated in Ceylon. Many have become insane 
through immoderate drinking of the strong and 
deadly arrack spirit or loddy which the native 
distills «o cleverly from coconut flowers. Indeed, 
he is very skilful at extracting •trong drinks from 
almo.st any tree. 
GOVERNING BY KINDNESS. 
The cubic space for each patient, judged by the 
British point of view, is enoimous, but, of cour«e, 
more air space is needed in the tropics. Very 
little restraint is us«d, aiid a strong effort is made 
to govern by kif.dness and moral siiasion rather 
than by a show of force. The patients appeared 
to be devoted to theii doctors, some of whom are 
English, whiU other* are "Bui£;hers," who have 
mostly taken their medical degiee« at E'linburgh, 
One old man, who was rather a bad ease, hearing 
of our contemplated visit, determined to honour 
the occasion by gathering the most gaudy and 
resplendent tropical b ossoms from the grounds. 
In the absence of flower vases he had filled two 
pairs of shoes, borrowed for that put pose from a 
European source, since the native wears only the 
hardened skin shoes wherewith nature endows 
him. Bright with tropical blossoms most taste- 
fully arranged, four shoes stood rang.»d (axtside hi* 
cell door, and lie proudly did the honf.urs of the 
flower show. He had calculated on a money resair 
— and he got it. It is impossible to visit and 
study the workings of Ibis huge In»ane A»ylum 
of Colombo without being im; ressed w ith it« 
admirable methods. Itsd ed. the A<ylum ranks 
high in the estimation of all who are fami iar with 
it, and it is popularly allowed to be '• a credit t» 
Ceylon." — " Hoipital" Nursing M%rror. 
