Medical topography and statistics of the Presidency of Madras : compiled from the records of the Medical Board Office.

Date:
1843-1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical topography and statistics of the Presidency of Madras : compiled from the records of the Medical Board Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    west^ along wliicli a canal runs parallel to the wall at the distance of forty or fifty yards, the banks of which are also resorted to as 2^ place d^aisance by multitudes of natives. The following is a concise description of the different vil- lages, which now form part of this extensive town. Royapooram* Royapooram is situated outside the walls, on the north side of Black-town, at the distance of about a quarter of a mile, and extends for one mile along the beach. The inhabitants are chiefiy fishermen and boatmen, amounting to about 8,000, they are persons of low caste, many being ro- man catholic Christians ; they live in huts of an inferior de- scription, having mud walls, and cadjan (dried palmira leaves) roofs ; the lanes and streets are very narrow, and unprovided with drains, so that there is a collection of filth, at almost every door. Scavengers are not employed in this district, and the space of ground between the town wall and the village is used as a necessary by the natives, and as a receptacle for the contents of the scavenger’s carts from the town. From their filthy condition and the poverty of the inhabitants disease, when it appears in an epidemic form in Madras, invariably causes great havoc in this village ; from the manner in which most of the people live, (for here poverty and vice truly go together) their families are badly clothed and fed; and their children are observed to be small and unhealthy; and it is calculated that two-thirds of them die before the age of maturity. The most prevalent forms of disease 2xe fever, dysentery, diarrhoea, and scrofula ; and from their being exposed so much to the glare of the sun on the water, the boatmen very generally, have defective vision, their eyes becoming or cataractous, at an early period. Vepery, in- These villages lie to the west of Black-town viiia^ge^ 0/^^ being separated from it by a spacious open espla- Pursewakum. nade about half a mile wide; the principal streets are well built, provided with drains, and kept clean, but the cross streets and lanes are close and often filthy.