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The beliefs of the rural population are that evil spirits or Devils exercise malefic influence on them. Therefore Yakkas occupy a special place in their lives. Every form of disease or suffering is attributed to the agency of Demons due to the peoples’ beliefs and feelings of supernatural terror. Buddhism and Christianity both acknowledge the existence of Demons. The village folk believe that malevolent spirits inhabit every cemetery, rock, well or a tree and that they can work evil if their goodwill is not sought, also they believe that the spirit of a person who died suddenly or by accident remains at large and can threaten the family members.

The Birth of the King of Demons
Sankapala , a belligerent king of Wisala Maha Nuwara in India set out from his kingdom to engage himself in a war with another country leaving his beautiful queen consort Ayupala Kumari in the care of his ministers. After a long drawn out war the victorious king returned home to find the queen pregnant. The ladies of the court being jealous of the queen attributed to the queen an uncouth relationship with one of the ministers. The king although completely purturbed ignored this until the foetus developed to full term. And questioned the queen about the parentage of the unborn chid the queen implored that the child was no one’s except the king. Unable to convince himself regarding the Queen’s innocence, he sentenced her to a gruesome death. He ordered the hangmen to strip the body of the queen in two from head to foot and hang the two halves on a tree in the cemetery exposed to vultures to feed upon it. One half was hanging on the tree while the other half fell to the ground.

The gods having compassion on the innocent queen, caused the remaining half of her body, that was hanging on the tree to fall down on the ground. No sooner this happened the body was made whole joining with the other half. The Queon breathed her last in paroxysms of anger and hatred crying revenge on the cruel act of the king. Soon after there occurred a posthumous birth producing a male child. The new born child traced his steps to the jungle cemetery closeby’ where he grew up feeding on carcasses poisonous serpents and other reptiles. Being endowed with supernatural power he gathered for himself, a retinue of other Demons, 18 in all, to minister unto him. He delegated them with various functions, namely to bring disease like, Vatha, Pithha, Phlegm, Worms, Stomach ailments, Boils and Ulcers physical defects like, Blindness’ Deafness, Dumbness and so on. Under his sole jurisdiction, the King of Demons Maha Son Yaka. The chief lieutenant or Pottu Amman of the king is Kalu Kumara Yaka and next to him came Riri Yaka.

The Kalu Kumaraya is the gay Lothario. His favourable victims are the good looking young women,, specially the women of dark complexion. He is a Ladies ‘ Man. The Kalu Kumaraya attacks maids at wells or common bathing places on rivers, in dark rooms where young women are possible to be met alone. When someone falls sick in the village, they first resort to native treatment and after prolonged treatment if no apparent cure is found’ they go for Western treatment. Even then if the patient shows no symptoms of a permanent cure, their suspicions get centred on malevolent evil spirits and the devil. It is common for a female to suffer from emotional sickness due to over sensitiveness in their creative minds. Loneliness, excessive day dreaming’ bitter experiences get into their unconscious minds that they literally waste away in fear and worry, sending alarm signals to thoso around them to seek favour with the spirits.

The patient sometimes would not eat, is away drowsy or wears a blank stare: and has a tendency, to get up and run away as the devil was dwelling within him. Even the Physicians of ancient Greece were aware that the mind could sicken and destroy the body. An unlucky person broods so much that he weakens his resistance to disease.

The Propiciation of the Davil
When a sick person does not respond to medical treatment, whether native or Western the stage is set for an approach to the Kattadiya or Yakadura. There is not a single village in Sri Lanka that does not boast of at least one Yakadura. The Yakadura after feeling the pulse of the patient pronounces that the cause of the illness is attributed to the influence of such and such evil spirit or ‘Amanussa Dishti’ and to drive him off a Yakuma or Thovil ceremony is essential. The first act of the Yakadura is to apply charmed coconut oil on the patient’s head. He utters words in low tone on to a saucer of oil, stirring it at the same time with a piece of ekel, words which he has committed to memory, being charms and invocations extolling the virtues of the Buddha to frighten the evil spirits. Then he bails out the patient for a certain period by tying a charmed thread daubed in saffron which is tied round the neck of the patient. This is called ‘Epa Nool’. Then within a certain number of days the Thovil must follow.

On the appointed day, the Kattadiya comes with his deputies and a couple of drummers. From morning till evening they prepare the stage which is called ‘Hunian Veejje’, which is completed before dark. For the construction of this, strips of plantain bark, sticks of Indi or wild date, tender coconut leaves and leaves of Habarala or Caladium are used. Arecanut flowers and Ixora or Ratmal flowers are used to decorate the Hunian Veejje.

The H.V. is daintly decorated with designs in Habarala leaf. The Habarala leaf artist has no training to go by, he transmits his patterns or figures from his memory on the leaf directly through the point of a knife. Thease patterne are pasted on the arches and the balustrades of the Stage is the aid of coconut oil. The Stage with painted in gaudy colours to render it attractive. The lime fruit is considered a great antidote against spirits and therefore lime-cutting takes an important place in the ritual consisting of incantations. Besides the H.V. portable platforms called ‘Thatu’, made of sticks and tender leaves of coconut palm in the shape of the Pyramid are made on which are spread various types of food, sweets and betel leaves and flowers. The Yakadura does not fail to place a small quantity of arrack and opium to placate the evil spirits. The H.V. and the small platforms are illuminated with small torches made with rags wrapped round sticks which when daubed in coconut oil burns slowly. (See page 16)

The other most important ingredient is powdered combustible resin to cause a conflagration with flames of fire to frighten the evil spirits.

This is done by throwing the resin on a buring Pandama or torch which had been dipped in coconut oil. A live cookbird is an essential commodity that is placed in front of the H.V. with its legs tied as a propitiary gift to the Devil. This is a two 1egged offering to appease the Devil who is supposed to wring its neck and drink its blood before leaving the patient’s body.

After a sumptuous dinner where all the Yakaduras take part, the ceremony commences when the sunsets. The entire village will attend this ceremony and help in various ways. A set of boys are allocated the work of shouting ‘Ayu Bo Wewa’ or may the patient enjoy long life when the Yakadura calls for same. The chief Kattadiya dresses himself in a fresh white cloth , provided by the dhoby and ties a broad red sash round his waist .

He wears a white Jacket of a female to cover the upper part of his body. A crown made out of tender coconut leaves, he wears on his head. To his feet are tied two tinkling bell anklets that produce shrill music when he moves or dances. Against the background of rhythmically beating drums he begins the ‘Shanthi Karma’. While the Yak Bere or the drum is sounded to an enchanting tune the Yakadura coaxes the Devils to the scene by flattery and offerings in endearing terms and invocations ‘Oddi Masinna! Wara! Wara!, come and enjoy the feast laid down for you! He blows his short flute, Moo! Huii! Huii! producing a wierd note. He performs supplicating dances before the patient or ‘Arthuraya’ , who meanwhile is made to a sit on a mat in front of the H.V. covering the head with a white cloth.

The patient is screened from view with a white cloth held in front by two people. This is removed half way when the patient is admitted inside the H.V. The Kattadiya carries a ‘Pandama’ or a lighted torch in one hand and often throws handfuls of resin powder on the burning torch creating a huge conflagration.

He invokes long life on the patient at intervals, which is repeated loudly by the crowd present for the purpose. As the Yakadura dances to the beating of the drums, he sometimes performs the ‘Gini Sisila’ that is thrusting the burning Pandama under his arm pits and on his belly. He performs supplicating dances before the Arthuraya and most of the incantations are recited praising the virtues of the Buddha and induce the spirits to accept the offerings.

The charms and incantations, songs and invocations are committed to memory by the Yakadura, who interrupts the recitation with violent bouts of dancing.

The Mantharas, which are mystic combination of words and letters which vibrate into sound that causes a good or bad effect are uttered addressing the evil spirits to do no harm to the patient.

The offering of food is done to entertain them and with their good will. The Yakadura sometimes becomes fully inspired, quivers in his frency to the rhythmic beat of the drum. Then comes the driving away of the evil spirits, challenging them to depart uttering unkind words, ‘Vina Kala Yaka! Pala! Pala!, but before departing curs the Arturaya of the ailments. Yakadura first coaxed the Devil with flattery and offerings but cheated them later showering insult and threats on them altogether discarding them.

The whole ceremony carry a theraputic beneficial impact on the mind of the patient. Towards morning the gaily constructed. H.V. is shreded to pieces by the Yakadura with a sharp knife exposing the Arthuraya to everybody’s view, indicating that the evil spirit which haunted the patient is no more. After the Thovil ceremony the patient is immunised against evil spirits with a charmed Yantharaya tied to some part of the body, either the neck, waist or the arm. Charmed saffron water is sprinkled on the patient that the devil will no more harass him. Godwin Witane

Barely had Ben Johnson fled the Seoul Olympics than Flo-Jo, his female counterpart who died this week, was making f further mockery of the sport.

The early death of the extraordinary sprinter Florence Griffith-Joyner, almost ten years to the day since the first of her three gold medals at the Olympic Games in Seoul, has raised again all the old suggestions that her success was based on performance enhancing drugs.

Indeed her very death at 38 has aroused the spectre - so worrying to many another athlete who has done the same thing - that this too was due to drugs. It was ironic that, on the same day as her death, the man with whom she will be perpetually linked in the annals of athletic speedsters, Ben Johnson was in a Toronto court trying to get his life-ban for sports drug taking overturned. He was unsuccessful, and will remain, even more than the whole East German statecontrolled doping system and the demonised Chinese athletes, the scapegoat for doping in Olympic sports, particularly athletics. The only difference in many people’s minds, including this writer’s, is that Johnson was caught.

Although many people might doubt it, journalists, like second-hand car salesmen and politicians, are human too.

When we see great performances, we respond enthusiastically. Yet the silence that invaded the press box in the Seoul stadium, when Griffith-Joyner ran a record-shattering 21.34 seconds to win the Olympic 200 metres 10 years ago was not awestruck, it was despairing.

Barely had Johnson fled Seoul in disgrace when his female peer was making a further mockery of the sport.

I first met Griffith-Joyner in 1985 when she was already a world championships silver medallist, albeit far from being as quick as the likes of her colleague, Evelyn Ashford, and a variety of East German sprinters, such as Marlies Gohr, Silke Gladisch and Heike Drechsler. At that time, Flo-Jo as she was nick-named later, at the height of her fame, was one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen, petite, ovalfaced with unblemished skin.

It would be three years before I would get as close to her again, in Seoul 1988, by which time she had metamorphosed. Apart from the overall muscular definition and diminution of breasts, her jaw had elongated, a condition called acromegaly, known to be an effect of Human Growth Hormone.

She wore thick pan-stick make-up, to cover the widespread acne, a side-effect of male hormones, and her voice had deepened substantially.

But she was not the only woman competitor in Seoul manifesting such startling changes. There was a British performer among them.

That, perhaps, as much as the sacrifice of Johnson, prompted the International Olympic Committee and International Amateur Athletic Federation to tighten up their drugtesting procedures.

Performances dropped off drastically in those events which benefited most from anabolic steroids.

But Pandora’s medicine chest was not going to be closed so easily. Athletes, already earning substantial sums of money, began to invest in the undetectable substances, such as Testosterone, Human Growth Hormone, and later, following the cyclists’ lead, Erythropoietin or EPO, the Tour de France drug of choice.

In a professional sportsworld increasingly dominated by television sales and ratings, Ben Johnson’s latest manager asks pertinently what message the athletics authorities are giving to competitors when they offer a million dollars for breaking a world record. The response of IAAF President, Primo Nebiolo may be judged from a quote at last year’s World Championships in Athens, "I am tired of discussing the problem of doping. I like these great events, these championships with their young people. Spending so much time following the pee-pee (urine testing) for me is not nice."

The use of performance-enhancing drugs in Olympic sports probably began in the mid-1950s on the west coast of the United States. Anabolic steroids had been developed to assist concentration camp victims restore wasted bone.

Body builders soon realised the drugs’ potential, and the hammer and discus throwers, and shot putters who attended the muscle beaches soon latched on. It took the authorities until 1975, to institute bans. In the interim, the Eastern Bloc had responded with their own drugs programmes. The big two nation matches, USA v USSR were still in vogue at the time, as inter-Olympics competitions. Drugs quickly became the currency of the cold war as it was played out in the Olympic arena. One of the best witnesses of the outcome of this was Dr Robert Voy, who resigned as Chief Medical Officer of the US Olympic Committee almost ten years ago, when he felt he was being given no encouragement.

In his revelatory book, Drugs, Sport and Politics, Voy wrote, "I understood that many people at the USOC were in the business for one reason: to bring home the gold. Just how the athletes accomplished that - well, few cared."

Voy’s book is chock full of instances of US competitors in a variety of sports being exonerated without the offence ever being made public, the corollary to which is, and again this is a personal view, had Ben Johnson been a US rather than a Canadian athlete, he would not have been busted in Seoul, and would either have retired a hero, or even still been competing at 36.

The US Olympic Committee, and the US television networks hold sway over the O]ympic movement. Canada comes somewhere down the list, ergo Johnson was expendable. This view was bolstered for many others when Flo-Jo retired barely six months after Seoul, on the threshold of making millions of dollars in appearance money.

Ten years after, performances inevitably, are creeping up again, or speeding ahead in the case of distance running. That is partly natural, barriers are there to be broken, albeit Flo-Jo’s and Ben-Jo’s remain intact. But drug legislation is weak and divided, for example baseball hero, Mark McGwire can happily take Androstenedione, a relatively weak androgen, to help him slug his record breaking number of home runs, while practically every other sport, Olympic or otherwise bans it.

More frighteningly, Dr Gabriele Rosa, an athletics coach, who used to work with cyclists, recently reported a spate of operations on cyclists, to enlarge their iliac artery (in the hip) to increase blood flow.

"What is more worrying," says Rosa "is that taking EPO has reached such a level that many cyclists are sleeping with heart-rate monitors. "If their pulse drops below 25 beats a minute, a buzzer wakes them, and they get on an exercise bike to bring it back from the danger zone."

This is due to the thickening of blood caused by EPO, and up to a score of cyclists are believed to have died. Yet this year’s Tour de France revelations are due entirely to the French police and judiciary.

It should be a rule of thumb that no sports federation be involved in dope testing its competititors, arbitrating the results, or deciding on the penalties. It is even less in their interests to ban miscreants now than it was ten years ago.

At a press conference in Tokyo immediately after Seoul, the deposed Olympic 100 metres champion, Evelyn Ashford turned on us angrily after another Flo-Jo exposition of the "fivethousand-sit-ups-a-day" reason for improvement. "Why don’t you guys write the real story?" demanded Ashford, unaware perhaps of the niceties of libel laws. Well Evelyn, with due respect to the dead, here it is!

On September 28 the all male bastion of the English, the MCC fell as the Club decides to enrol women as members

Meet the new faces — and figures — of cricket. They are young, fit and fashionable... but, most importantly, they are female.

As cricket’s die-hards prepare to embrace "the enemy", they should be aware of a new model army of women cricketers who are determined to thwack the matronly image of their predecessors into history.

Kathryn "Lengy" Leng, a willowy Yorkshire lass, wins style points as much for her Oakley sunglasses and her off-pitch Armani wardrobe as her mean spin-bowling.

Her team-mate in the Ashes Test series against the Australians, which ended last week, is England’s youngest cricket "babe", Sarah Collyer, 17, a giggly Cheshireborn teenager with a passion for clothes-shopping. Unlike sportswomen before her, not least her mentor Rachel Heyhoe-Flint, Sarah favours "high heels, clingy dresses and going clubbing". Jane Cassar, 25, from Derby, has more than 50 England caps and has played at Lord’s half-a-dozen times.

"I can’t remember a time when I didn’t play cricket," says Jane, wife of cricketer Matthew Cassar, who plays for Derbyshire. "What women lack in speed, power and strength, they make up in technique. Players like Cathryn Fitzpatrick, who bowls at 70mph, have proved you don’t have to be butch to be good."

Since last year’s World Cup, women cricketers have worn trousers rather than culottes and body armour: helmet, grille and arm-guards. The~ use a smaller ball, but otherwise the game is the same as the men’s.

"If the MCC votes ‘yes’ I believe it will be a step in the right direction," says Kathryn. "I’ve played at Lord’s twice and have always been made to feel very welcome. At the end of the last match various gentlemen members actually shook my hand.

"To be officially welcomed by MCC members would be superb. On the other hand it was originally a club set up by men, for men. If they want to keep it an all-male establishment, fair enough. I’d rather be accepted because of the standard of our play and the fact that we share a passion for the game, rather than for tokenism. "

The merger of the Women’s Cricket Association with the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) takes effect on Tuesday. This, coupled with women’s cricket being included in last year’s Vodaphone sponsorship deal—£15 million over five years—has given the girls an even higher profile.

Kathryn was one of the first girls to go to an all-boys school. "When I first turned up for nets," she says, "the boys thought it was a joke. When they saw me play, they soon shut up." And the girls’ post-match parties can be as raucous as the men’s — although the only fight is for the hairdryer. "At last week’s end-of-tour party we dressed up as The Spice Girls, sang Stop, then went clubbing until 4.30 a.m."

‘Grandpa! Ammi is calling you for tea. You have been in the garden a long time she says’, little Nimalie said as she playfully clung on to his back as he squatted on his haunches in the garden attending to the plants. The action nearly threw over the rather frail Mr. Charles who was now in his eighty second year and still tending the garden with loving care. He was no believer in the new founded foliage. To him a garden meant flowers.

Old Mr. Charles was a great lover of flowers and had a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. And so come May-the month of blossoms and the month dedicated to the Mother of God, he would take more than usual interest in the garden and ensure that there were lots and lots of flowers to honour the Virgin Mary and to cull for the special altar, it was customary for them to have, in the month of May. He took great pride and pleasure in arranging and decorating the altar himself.

Some months ago on his birthday, his daughter had presented him with a yellow rose plant she had bought at a flower show. He had lavished much care on this plant and it had branched off beautifully. There were three pretty buds, from within which, pale cream petals peeped, impatient to burst forth. They would blossom tomorrow and old Mr Charles could not wait to see them. Hence his prolonged stay in the garden.

He would often take his five year old grand-daughter by the hand and walk round the garden telling her about the flowers; the connection between the flowers and the Month of May and Mother Mary and would teach her to lisp the Hail Mary on his well-worn beads.

‘Grandpa! Have the yellow roses bloomed’? Nimalie asked. ‘No darling. They will definitely bloom tomorrow and you shall have the privilege of cutting the first yellow rose for the Blessed Mother. ‘I shall nip away all the surrounding thorns so that your little fingers will not bleed.

‘Oh! Grandpa, you are a darling’ she said, as she hugged him and together they went in for tea.

Early next morning Nimalie was up much earlier than usual to wake up Grandpa to see the roses. But her mother told her that grandpa was not yet up and should not be disturbed and that she should go out and play. The fact was that Mr Charles was not all that well this particular morning and his daughter did not want Nimalie to worry him.

Suddenly Nimalie burst into the room holding up the three yellow roses, she had herself cut with Grandpa's garden scissors and there she was with crimson drops from her bruised hands tinting the pale yellow roses screaming ‘Grandpa! grandpa! I've plucked the beautiful yellow roses for you. come, get up we'll give them to the Blessed Mother’.

Grandpa turned wearily but smilingly to little Nimalie and whispered ‘Thank you darling~ for bringing me these Roses I was longing to see them. Your mother brought me that plant, you darling child have brought me the first Roses from the plant and I in turn take them to the Blessed Mother myself’. And reaching out his hand he was just able to grasp the flowers when his head fell aside on his pillow.

This is a question often asked of nutritionists and of physicians. Various answers are given, which, to some laymen, are confusing. This is not surprising as there is no one cause for the condition, and the remedy for a disease is closely linked to its cause. A large number of risk factors have been described, any combination of which could precipitate arterial disease that leads to a heart attack or to a brain attack (formerly referred to as stroke).

I had the good fortune to listen to a lecture delivered to Section A of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, by Dr. Nihal Kulatilake, Consultant cardio-thoracic surgeon working at the University of Wales, Cardiff and a former pupil of mine at the Peradeniya Medical School in the late 1960s. His lecture was illustrated by slides which described procedures adopted during coronary by- pass surgery.

When he came to speak about prevention he said the best advice he could give us was to follow the guidelines discussed by R. B. Singh et al in Volume 6 of the Journal of Nutrition and Environmental Medicine, in an article titled "Indian consensus for prevention of hypertension and coronary artery disease." I list below the guidelines as summarized by Dr. Kulatilake.

1. Fat intake less than 21% kcal per day; 25 g per day of non-saturated oil.
2. Fruits, vegetables, legumes - 400gm per day.
3. Low salt diet, less than 6 gm salt per day.
4. Moderate physical activity, expending at least 300 kcal per day.
5. No tobacco, alcohol reduced. -
6. Maintain low cholesterol levels and avoid obesity.

Low Fat Intake
Let us assume that the total energy requirement for an average adult male Sri Lankan (if such an average male does exist) is 2500 kilo calories per day (denoted by Kcal/day).

This would be a high figure for most office workers. The average office worker avoids climbing down the stairs, leave alone climbing up, avoids walking to a bus halt and attempts to stop a bus in between halts, thus becoming a nuisance to other users of the road, and calls for a peon to carry his files to a vehicle that he might be using. 21% of 2500 kcal is 525 kcal. Each gramme of fat or oil provides 9 kcal so that our fat intake should be less than 58 g per day. Coconut is the main source of fat for a majority of Sri Lankans.

If an average-sized coconut is used each day by a family of five, each person would get about 27 g fat, assuming all the coconut is eaten. All other sources of fat should then provide only about 32 g fat. As coconut fat is mainly saturated fat, other sources of fat should provide unsaturated fat. Those who wish to indulge in egg yolk, butter, beef, mutton, pork’ (foods rich in saturated fat)’ will have to reduce their coconut intake considerably.

How do-we make up the 25 g of unsaturated fat recommended by Indian scientists? The vegetables we eat provide about 5 g of fat, mainly unsaturated. Foods that add unsaturated fats to the diet are seeds, such as soya, gingili and peanuts, and fish, especially small fish such as the salaya, hurulla and kumbalawa, and shark. Olive oil could be used with salads and soya oil or red palm oil for tempering and frying.

Fruits, Vegetables and Legume Grain (pulses)
Our intake of these items is very low. We spend about Rs. 20 on an apple when more nutritious fruits such as banana, papaw, mango and pineapple are much cheaper. Hardly any vegetables are eaten by most urban dwellers. Their lunch packets usually contain an onion sambal, one helping of lentil and one vegetable, most commonly brinjal.

I have not seen any green leafy vegetable in any packet sold in Colombo. Packets sold in Peradeniya are much better in this regard. The morning meal is usually bread, with coconut sambal or lentil curry, and the hoppers, string hoppers or pittu which form the dinner, is usually eaten with lentil or fish or beef curry, a kiri hoddha and a hot sambal. We must double the usual intake of vegetables, green leaves and pulses such as green gram, cowpea and soya, all of which are more nutritious than the red lentil.

Our intake of pulses is low, and is usually confined to the imported red lentil (massoor dhal). We could change from plain kiribath to mung kiribath, from roti to thosai, from string hoppers to iddli, and patties and rolls could be replaced by undu vadai, masala vadai and onion vadai. The morning meal could be of boiled green gram or cowpea. We should aim at two servings of a legume grain at lunch and at dinner.

Moderate Physica1 Activity
This is another deficiency in our lifestyle. The television set has reduced our activity to a minimum. Everyone should find time for a brisk walk lasting about an hour, everyday. This could be reinforced by walking fast to work and along corridors, and climbing up and down stairs whenever time permits.

Tobacco and Alcohol
There are active campaigns against these two offenders. There is absolutely no reason for permitting advertisements of either. If the government leans heavily on tobacco companies for funds, it is time we learnt to do without such funding. Sponsoring of sports activities is no reason for these two evils being permitted to adversely affect our health and morals. Our senior politicians and bureaucrats should set an example by avoiding tobacco and any beverage containing alcohol.

Low Cholesterol Levels and Obesity
Traditionally, our intake of cholesterol has been low, mainly from milk and milk products and fish. Milk is an essential food for infants and young children, if only for the fact that it is a good source of calcium. Calcium requirements of adolescents and non-pregnant adults could be met from other sources, namely small fish fried and eaten whole, and consumption of the soft ends of chicken bones (a good habit formed by many South-East Asians).

Obesity and diabetes mellitus is fast becoming a problem in Sri Lanka. Migrants to urban areas from villages tend to give up the traditional habits as well as diet, giving up a rice - and - vegetable diet to one of fast foods and snacks, thus increasing their fat intake and reducing the intake of vegetables, while at the same time reducing physical activity. This is especially true of village women who obtain jobs in foreign countries. An increase in prevalence of diabetes mellitus has been reported in such migrants. Those born under deprived conditions and living in more affluent circumstances as adults, show a higher incidence of diabetes than those born and living under affluent conditions. Children in the UK, of low birth weight and low weightfor-age at 12 months, have been shown to have a greater tendency to develop diabetes in later life. Intra-uterine undernutrition results in a diminution of the number of beta cells in the pancreas, maximum beta cell division occurring in foetal life. The prevalence of low birth weight is high in Sri Lanka.

In diabetes there is an increase in both cellular cholesterol and in low density lipoprotein cholesterol, both factors that contribute to arterial disease. It is therefore imperative that efforts be made to improve the health and nutrition status of pregnant women with a view to decreasing the present high incidence of low birth weight babies.

Dr. Kulatilake also stated that, whereas the number of coronary by-pass operations done in the UK and USA was in the region of 20 to 30 thousand per million of population, the number of Sri Lankans needing such surgery, during the same period, was only 3200 per million. Therefore he did not consider that coronary heart disease had reached "epidemic" proportions in Sri Lanka. However, as it is known that South Asians tend to develop coronary heart disease at an earlier age than white Cancasians, the cost to the country of any increase in the prevalence of the condition will be greater. The change in lifestyle of Sri Lankans that has taken place during the past 50 years, from traditional practices and a more leisurely lifestyle to a more western oriented diet and a hurried lifestyle, has contributed significantly to the number of persons needing surgical intervention. It is time steps were taken to reverse the process.