ON TIIE MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY OP SINGAPORE. 473 
I 
Portugese are understood the descendants of Portuguese, that in the 
marriages and inter-marriages with natives for 300 years have near¬ 
ly lost all national features. In a medical point of view I would look 
upon all the variety ot races that are settled in this island as capable 
of being divided into 3 great classes. The first class may be parti¬ 
cularised as possessing a full habit of body, well fed and clothed, and 
whose occupations do not expose them to local influences creative of 
disease, but which is the reverse with their mode of living; this class 
includes Europeans, Indo-Britains, Armenians and Parsecs, and the 
principal men in the second class. The second class may be said to 
be an industrious, hard working race, whose occupations expose them 
to whatever local influence may exist to.create disease, whose habit 
of body is gross, full and flabby, whose food is bulky, not heat creat¬ 
ing, and but little azotised; who are sufficiently clothed, but poorly 
housed, and of whom the majority earn but little more than necessa¬ 
ry for their support, and moreover are addicted to the immoderate 
use of Opium, by which not only is their life rendered miserable, 
but its duration much curtailed. This class includes the Chinese, 
Siamese and Cochin Chinese. The third class may be described as 
a spare yet muscular race of small size and not disposed to form fat, 
in temper and passions quick and excitable when roused, but lazy and 
indolent generally; sufficiently clothed but poorly housed and pur¬ 
suing occupations which expose them to all the local influences crea¬ 
tive of disease ; in diet sparing and that diet of a bulky nature, not 
heat creating nor exciting, and but little azotised; whose wages 
are sufficient to clothe them and feed them. This class includes 
Malays, Bengalese, Klin'gs, Javanese, Bugis, Portuguese descendants, 
Arabs, Cadres, Boyangs, in fact all natives of India and the Eastern 
Archipelago, not included in the first and second classes. In this last 
class, I would include the convicts, who are natives of India except 
a very few local Chinese and a few from Hongkong. 
In Singapore with the exception children and bedridden adults, it 
would be impossible to suffer from starvation ; privations are the lot of 
all, but it must be said for this our tropical region that all kind Pro¬ 
vidence seems to have opened her stores most lavishly for the use of 
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