On preservation of health in India / by Sir Joseph Fayrer.

  • Joseph Fayrer
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On preservation of health in India / by Sir Joseph Fayrer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The geographical boundaries are well defined, on the north by the Himalayas, a chain of stupendous mountains 150 miles in average breadth, the highest in the world, run- ning north-west and south-east in a crescentic manner for 1600 miles, with a mean height of 16,000 to 20,000 feet; Mount Everest and Kinchinjunga, the loftiest peaks, being 29,000 and 28,000 feet above the sea level. This barrier, which separates India from Turkestan and Tibet, is crossed by passes 17,000 feet above the sea level, nearly as high as the line of eternal snow. On the north-west it is bounded by the edge of the plateau of Afghanistan and Beloochistan, and by the Suliman and other mountain ranges; on the north-east by the heights of Assam, dividing the drainage of the Brahmaputra from that of the Irawaddy. It is separated from Burmah and Siam by the Youmadong and other mountains, whilst its coasts have the Bay of Bengal on the east, and the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea on the west. This extensive but compact country has nearly two hundred and fifty millions of inhabitants, composed of races more numerous and ethnically distinct, and speaking languages more numerous and varied than those of Europe; whilst, from the nature of its physical geography and the extent of its area, it has every kind of climate, varying from that of the Torrid to the Arctic zone. The seat of the most ancient civilization, with a history that reaches far back into remote antiquity ; possessing a fertile soil, lofty mountains, elevated table-lands, rich alluvial valleys, extensive desert tracts, and plains ; noble rivers, extensive swamps, jungles, and magnificent forests; a rich Fauna and Flora, wealth of mineral, vegetable, and animal products, and many unde- veloped resources; it has characters that invest it with peculiar interest, especially for those who spend the best part of life there, and on whom the responsibility of ruling it has fallen. A country with such physical characters has many dis- tinguishing features of climate that are strange to the Anglo-Saxon, who has necessarily much to learn before he is*acclimatised and adapted to his new home. The people
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