palm flourish more luxuriantly
than it does in this district. One intelligent writer estimates that
the province lying between Dondra Head and Calpentyn contains between
ten and twelve million fruitful palms. The productiveness of the
cocoanut is most extraordinary. As long as the tree lives, it
continues to bear; blossoms and ripe nuts are frequently seen on it at
the same time. The natives have a saying here that it will not thrive
beyond the sound of the human voice, and it is very certain that it is
most fruitful and flourishing among the native cabins, where there is
plenty of domestic refuse to enrich the ground about its roots. The
fertilizing principle is not to be forgotten even in tropical regions.

This recalls the astute saying of a profound philosopher, who declared
that Providence always turned the course of large and navigable rivers
to run by big towns.

As regards healthfulness, the region round about Point de Galle can
hardly be commended, and there are some local features not to be
forgotten. Elephantiasis prevails among the natives, and leprosy is by
no means unknown. Goitre is not uncommon among the native women,
Europeans not being affected by it. In Switzerland, where the people
so frequently suffer from goitre, it is attributed to drinking snow
water; but some other cause must be found for its prevalence here. The
most singular thing in connection with the strange guttural
protuberance which this disease develops is that females only are
liable to it; at least, this seems to be the case in this island. That
leprosy is on the increase in Ceylon cannot be denied. There is a
leper hospital four or five miles from Colombo, where between two and
three hundred poor creatures afflicted with this disease are supported
by the government. Besides this fact, it is well known that scores of
lepers wander about the capital unrestrained. This is a serious
reproach to the authorities. Published statistics show that there are
nearly two thousand lepers living upon the island.

One other matter, in this connection, requires prompt attention.
Vaccination should be made compulsory. In common with ignorant people
wherever found, the Singhalese and Tamils object to this process of
protection from what sometimes proves to be in Ceylon a sweeping
pestilence before it runs itself out. The records of the island show
terrible fatality from the visits of smallpox in past years, which
might easily have been prevented.