Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/264

EURASIAN 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.* 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.† " 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 ‡ examined the blood of 309 persons in