During a visit to Ootacamund on the Nīlgiri 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.[13] 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[14] “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[15] 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 10¼; of the mixed race, 1 in 9. Doctor Laville[16] 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 are much more liable to the diseases than are the white races.” During the five years 1893–97, ninety-eight Eurasians suffering from filarial diseases were admitted into the General Hospital, Madras.

To Colonel W. A. Lee, I.M.S., Superintendent of the Government Leper Asylum, Madras, I am indebted for the following note on leprosy in its relation to the Eurasian and European communities. “Europeans are by no means immune to the disease, which, in the majority of instances, is contracted by them through coitus with leprous individuals. Leprosy is one of the endemic diseases of tropical and sub-tropical countries, to the risk of contracting which Europeans who settle on the plains of India, and their offspring from unions with the inhabitants of the land, as well as the descendants of the latter, become exposed, since, by the force of circumstances, they are thrown into intimate contact with the Native population. The Eurasian community furnishes a considerable number of lepers, and the disease, once introduced into a family, has a tendency to attack several of its members, and to reappear in successive generations, occasionally skipping one—a feature akin to the biological phenomenon known as atavism, but of perhaps doubtful analogy, for the possibility of a fresh infection or inoculation has always to be borne in mind. There are numerous instances of such hereditary transmission among the patients, both Native and Eurasian, in the Leper Hospital. The spread of the disease by contagion is slow, the most intimate contact even, such as that between parent and child, often failing to effect inoculation. Still there is much evidence in support of its being inoculable by cohabitation, prolonged contact, wearing the same clothing, sharing the dwelling, using the same cooking and eating utensils, and even by arm-to-arm vaccination. Influenced by a belief in the last mentioned cause, vaccination was formerly regarded with much suspicion and dislike by Eurasians in Madras. But their apprehensions on this score have abated since animal vaccine was substituted for the humanised material. It has also for long been a popular belief among the same class that the suckling of their infants by infected Native wet-nurses is a common source of the disease. Attempts to reproduce leprosy from supposed pure cultures of the leprosy bacillus have invariably failed, and this strengthens the belief that the disease would die out if sufferers from the tubercular or mixed forms were segregated, and intermarriage with members of known leprous families interdicted. Experience shows that, where such marriages are freely entered into, a notable prevalence of the disease results, as at Pondicherry for example, where the so-called creole population is said to contain a large proportion of lepers from this cause.”

Writing concerning the prevalence of insanity in different classes, the Census Commissioner, 1891, states that “it appears from the statistics that insanity is far more prevalent among the Eurasians than among any other class. The proportion is 1 insane person in every 410. For England and Wales the proportion is 1 in every 307, and it is significant that the section of the population of Madras, which shows the greatest liability to insanity, is that which has an admixture of European blood. I have no information regarding the prevalence of insanity among Eurasians for any other province or State in India except Mysore, and there the proportion is 1 in 306.”

For the following tabular statement of admissions into the Government Lunatic Asylum, Madras, I am indebted to Captain C. H. Leet-Palk, I.M.S.:—

Eurasians.Natives.Europeans.
Male.Female.Male.Female.Male.Female.
18936711055154
18948610428191
189510611318114
18962482175...
1897338418141

Leaving out of question the Europeans, in whom, owing to the preponderance of the male sex in Madras, a greater number of male than female lunatics is to be expected, and considering only Eurasians and Natives, the far higher proportion of female as compared with male lunatics in the Eurasian than in the Native community, is very conspicuous. Taking, for example, the numbers remaining in the Asylum in 1894. Whereas the proportion of Eurasian males to females was 33:31, that of Natives was 30.6:6.8; and the high proportion of female Eurasian inmates was visible in other years. The subject seems to be one worthy of further study by those competent to deal with it.

[1] Manual of the North Arcot district; Madras Census Report, 1891.

[2] Madras Census Report, 1901.