Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 2 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 2 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
During a visit to Ootacamund on the Nilgiri hills, I was enabled
to examine the physique of the elder boys at the Lawrence Asylum,
the object of which is "to provide for children of European and
East Indian officers and soldiers of Her Majesty's Army (British and
Native), and of Europeans and East Indians in the Medical Service,
military and civil, who are serving, or have served within the limits
of the Presidency of Madras, a refuge from the debilitating effects of
a tropical climate, and from the serious drawbacks to the well-being
of children incidental to a barrack life; to afford for them a plain,
practical, and religious education; and to train them for employment
in different trades, pursuits, and industries." As the result of
examination of thirty-three Eurasian boys, I was able to testify to
the excellence of their physical condition. [123] A good climate, with
a mean annual temperature of 58°, good food, and physical training,
have produced a set of boys well-nourished and muscular, with good
chests, shoulders, and body weight.
Some final words are necessary on liability to certain diseases,
as a differentiating character between Eurasians and Europeans. The
Census Commissioner, 1891, states that Eurasians seem to be peculiarly
liable to insanity and leprosy. To these should be added elephantiasis
(filarial disease), concerning which Surgeon-Major J. Maitland writes
as follows [124] "Almost all the old writers on elephantiasis believed
that the dark races were more susceptible to the disease than white
people; but it is extremely doubtful if this is the case. It is true
that, in those countries where the disease is endemic, the proportion
of persons affected is much greater among the blacks than among the
whites; but it has to be borne in mind that the habits of the former
render them much more liable to the disease than the latter. The
majority of the white people, being more civilised, are more careful
regarding the purity of their drinking water than the Natives,
who are proverbially careless in this respect. In India, although
it is comparatively rare to meet with Europeans affected with the
disease, yet such cases are from time to time recorded. Eurasians
are proportionately more liable to the disease than pure Europeans,
but not so much so as Natives. Doctors Patterson and Hall of Bahia
[125] examined the blood of 309 persons in that place, and found the
following proportions affected with filaria; of whites, 1 in 26; of
blacks, 1 in 10-1/4; of the mixed race, 1 in 9. Doctor Laville [126]
states that, in the Society Islands, out of a total of 13 European and
American residents, 11 were affected with elephantiasis. Taking all
these facts into consideration, together with our knowledge of the
pathology of the disease, I do not think we are justified in saying
that the black races are more susceptible to the disease than white
people. On the other hand, owing to the nature of their habits, they
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