The steady increase of population, however, except perhaps in the
remotest districts, which education in any form has not yet reached,
inclines me to believe that schools, whether conducted on the native
or English systems, have proved an unqualified benefit to the people,
and that, instead of inducing or extending disease of any kind, many of
those enumerated in Miss Nightingale’s list being unknown in Ceylon,
they have, by even temporarily withdrawing those who by reason of their
tender age are most subject to the injurious consequences of bad habits
and premature exertion, secured for them a remarkable immunity from the
prevailing diseases of the country for the remainder of their lives.