s cases were abscesses
and ulcers, and the deaths from this cause amounted only to one in
Singapore. Many of these ulcers were on the legs, and were caused by
grit getting between the skin and the leather band worn under the fetter
rings of convicts in the fourth and fifth classes. Stomach and bowel
complaints rank next on the list, but we find that the deaths here only
amounted to units. Rheumatic affections were numerous, caused perhaps in
that damp climate from working on extra-mural duties and returning to
jail in wet clothes with the wind blowing on them. A few cases of dropsy
appear on the list, the largest number occurring in Penang, three only
at Singapore. There were ordinary cases of oedema.

The death-rate to strength per cent, from ordinary diseases for the year
given was 2.20 for Singapore, 3.82 for Penang, and 3.17 for Malacca.
Perhaps the special attention to sanitation in Singapore may account for
the death-rate being lower here than at the sister settlements.

After the convict jail had been broken up, and the convicts had all left
it, the jail was handed over to the prison authorities to be converted
into a criminal prison for the whole settlements. Not long after this
change had taken place a very peculiar disease broke out amongst the
inmates. It was known as Beri-beri, or, as some call it, the "Bad
sickness of Ceylon." It is a very serious disease, and some think it
arises from extreme exertion without sufficient sustenance to the body.
In 1878 the ratio of mortality in the prison had risen to 16.20 per
cent.; in 1879 it was further augmented to 20.63 per cent. The Local
Government deemed it necessary without delay to appoint a Committee of
Inquiry into the possible causes which had given rise to the spread of
this disease. The conclusion at which they arrived was that it was due
to the want of proper drainage of the site, so that the soil had got
water-logged, and had generated malaria; also, that the prisoners needed
a more nitrogenous diet. They advised the erection of an entirely new
prison on a better and more elevated locality. These suggestions were
all adopted, and the Committee in their judgment were greatly aided by
Dr. Irvine Rowell, C.M.G., the Principal Civil Medical Officer, who
formed one of the Committee.

There was no time lost by the Government with the Colonial Engineer
(Major McNair) in preparing plans and erecting on the west side of
Pearl's Hill, near the old civil jail, a pr