Report on the depopulation of the Vanni District, Northern Province / by James Loos ; ordered by His Honor the Officer Administering the Government to the printed.

  • Loos, James.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the depopulation of the Vanni District, Northern Province / by James Loos ; ordered by His Honor the Officer Administering the Government to the printed. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    DEPOPULATION OF THE YAmi DISTRICT. REPORT. Jaffna, 26th August, 1868. Sir,—Adverting to your letter of the 19th February last, informing me that His xcellency the Governor had been pleased to appoint me to report on the subject of the epopulation of the Vanni District, as recommended by the Irrigation Commission, I ave the honor to lay before you the following observations, as the result of an inquiry to the s'ubject. With the view of carrying out the investigation, I left Jaffna for the District of 'uUaittivu on the 9th of March last. The route I took, and the places I visited, will be found in the annexed Statement. I returned to Jaffna on the 23rd of the same month. Important duties, and the unfavorableness of the season, prevented my leaving Jaffna again till the 28th of June last, when I proceeded to Anuradhapura by the Central road, and in returning made a tour of the Mannar Vanni, visiting several villages, the names of which also are given in the annexed Statement. 1 have received ready co-opei'ation from Mr. Russell, the Government Agent of this Province, who sent orders to the Headmen to wait upon me, and give me all the assistance and information in their power. I have also received kind assistance from Messrs. Curgenven and Twynam, the Assistant Agents of Mullaittivu and Mannar. During my journey through the Mannar Vanni, I met Mr. Twynam, who was on circuit through his District, and his personal presence and influence in some of the places was signally useful in facilitating the inquiry. The objects of the inquiry, I gathered from the Report of the Irrigation Committee, as well as from your letter. The Committee rej)ort that depopulation has been going on in the District of Mannar, in the Northern Province, which has led to the disrepair and abandonment of Irrigation works; that this depopulation is due to frequent outbreaks of Cholera, to Fever, and to the prevalence amongst the people, for many^j'ears pastTofaTvery fatal dmease, reported to be of a syphilitic character ; that, in reference to the loathsome disease alluded to in the Vanni, no man, woman or child is believed to be free from it; and they recommend that a professional inquiry should be instituted into the character and progress of this scourge, with a view to its mitigation. My attention was therefore directed chiefly to ascertain the nature of the Parangi disease, the complaint referred to, and incidentally to the other causes of depopulation. That a decline in the population of the Vanni has beeu going on for an indefinite period, but more markedly within the last fifteen or~fwenty years, very slight inquiry is sufficient to establish. Cholera has several times, within the last ten years, visited the scattered villages and hamlets of the Vanni, sweeping away many of the inhabitants, and causing a sudden and rapid decrease in the population. Several villages have thus been greatly thinned, and some entirely depopulated, the'few who survived having fled panic- stricken from the scene of pestilence. Mallavi, which now has a population of only seven persons, is a striking instance; and lyan Perumal, another village, has been entirely abandoned. Kompuvaitte Kulam had once sixty-two inhabitants, but the number has dwindled to twenty-three. Some other villages may be mentioned in which the popu- lation has declined in an equally striking manner. It is certain that immigration from the Coast has had a disastrous influence on the Mannar Vanni; and the introduction of Cholera, on each of the occasions that it prevailed there, can be traced to the ari'ival of immigrants from India. Another cause tending to the depopulation of the Vanni, and long in operation, is the endemic Fever which exists in all seasons of the year, but is more especially prevalent during and after the rains of the north-east monsoon. The fever is usually of the in- termittent type, tending, from poverty of living and want of proper treatment, to visceral enlargements, and dropsy. Not unfrequently, however, the fever is of a severe form, and more rapid in its course, causing death from affection of the head. I was struck with the number of cases of enlarged spleen I met everywhere, and from which young children were not free. In the villages I visited at a later period of my journey, I remarked a disproportion in the number of children to the adult population. For instance, in Ramian- [163] DE OF POPULATION THE Vanni DISTRICT. Report.