to
promote cutaneous disorders, a belief which, though held as a fallacy in
northern climates, may have a truthful basis in the East.--AELIAN, _Hist.
Anim._ 1. X. 16. In a recent general order Lord Clyde has prohibited its
use in the Indian army. Camel's flesh, which is also declared unclean in
Leviticus, is said to produce in the Arabs serious derangement of the
stomach.]

The latter is rendered attractive by the unrivalled excellence of the
Singhalese in the preparation of innumerable curries[1], each tempered
by the delicate creamy juice expressed from the flesh of the coco-nut
after it has been reduced to a pulp. Nothing of the same class in India
can bear a comparison with the piquant delicacy of a curry in Ceylon,
composed of fresh condiments and compounded by the skilful hand of a
native.

[Footnote 1: The popular error of thinking curry to be an invention of
the Portuguese in India is disproved by the mention in the _Rajavali_ of
its use in Ceylon in the second century before the Christian era, and in
the _Mahawanso_ in the fifth century of it. This subject is mentioned
elsewhere: see chapter on the Arts and Sciences of the Singhalese.]

_The use of fruit_--Fruits are abundant and wholesome; but with the
exception of oranges, pineapples, the luscious mango and the
indescribable "rambutan," for want of horticultural attention they are
inferior in flavour, and soon cease to be alluring.

_Wine_.--Wine has of late years become accessible to all, and has thus,
in some degree, been substituted for brandy; the abuse of which at
former periods is commemorated in the records of those fearful disorders
of the liver, derangements of the brain, exhausting fevers, and visceral
diseases, which characterise the medical annals of earlier times. With a
firm adherence to temperance in the enjoyment of stimulants, and
moderation in the pleasures of the table, with attention to exercise and
frequent resort to the bath, it may be confidently asserted that health
in Ceylon is as capable of preservation and life as susceptible of
enjoyment, as in any country within the tropics.

_Exposure_.--Prudence and foresight are, however, as indispensable there
as in any other climate to escape well-understood risks. Catarrhs and
rheumatism are as likely to follow needless exposure to the withering
"along-shore wind" of the winter months in Ceylon[1], as they are
traceable to unwisely confronting the east winds of March in Great
Britain;