2
floods caused distress in some parts of East Bengal. Taking the pro-
vince as a whole, however, the people suffered less from abnormally short
or heavy rainfall than from an irregular distribution, which caused the
agricultural outturn to be below the average in the majority of districts.
5. Despite the enhanced general mortality, there was a small but
gratifying reduction in infantile mortality, the ratio of deaths to births falling-
from 22.14 to 21.89 per cent. In only five districts did the percentage
exceed 25 ; but higher rates continued to prevail in urban areas, varying from
26 per cent. in Bhadreswar to as much as 64 per cent. in Maniktalla. There
was a slight increase in the case of Calcutta, which, however, with a percent-
age of under 29 per cent., does not compare unfavourably with the majority
of the towns.
6. Notwithstanding the attention paid to the verification of vital statis-
tics, and the measures taken to ensure accuracy, it is feared that a consider-
able allowance must still be made for omissions. Enquiries made by the
vaccination staff in the case of over 100,000 births and 50,000 deaths led to-
the discovery of omissions representing approximately 2 per cent. in the case
of the former and 2'5 per cent. in the case of the latter. Further special
enquiries revealed a more serious degree of error in individual districts, and
also showed that, in every district but one in which investigation was made,
the neglect to register births was far more extensive than the failure to
record deaths. The Governor in Council has entrusted, as an experimental
measure, the presidents of panchayats in selected localities with the duty of
recording births and deaths in rural areas, and the experiment is reported
to have been successful.
7. Fever.—Compared with 1914, the mortality from fever was practi-
cally stationary, the number of deaths rising by only 3,118. The
districts which suffered most severely were Birbhum and Murshidabad,
in the former of which the Civil Surgeon reports that an epidemic of fever
has gone on " with unabated fury" since 1912. Such an epidemic is, he
reports, no new feature in Birbhum, but has recurred at intervals of ten
years since 1871. A progressive decrease in the number of deaths in towns
has been observed since 1913, which the Sanitary Commissioner ascribes to
increasing defectiveness of registration rather than to improvements in
sanitation or a more careful discrimination of the causes producing deaths.
This matter requires further investigation, and the Sanitary Commissioner
will be directed to make a special enquiry to ascertain the causes of the
diminution of fever mortality as recorded in urban areas.
8. Anti-malarial measures were continued at the expense both of
Government and of local authorities, though large and comprehensive
schemes were precluded by the financial situation as well as by the reduction
of staff caused by the transfer of officers to military service. Twenty-four Sub-
Assistant Surgeons were employed for the gratuitous distribution of quinine
for a period of five months from the middle of September, and special
malaria surveys were undertaken in various municipal and rural areas.
During the current year a special assignment of Rs. 1,00,000 has been made
from the sanitary grant for expenditure on anti-malarial measures. It is
proposed to devote this sum to a scheme of flood or flush drainage specially
designed for urban areas, and to a scheme of flooding rural areas, a form of
bonificazione, which, Government are advised, is specially adapted to Bengal.
The Governor in Council welcomes a noticeable access of public interest in
the problems associated with malaria and regrets that, owing to financial
stringency, he is debarred from attempting a more extensive anti-malarial
campaign.
9. Cholera.—Widespread epidemics caused the deaths from cholera to
rise from 89,224 to 130,679. Drought in some districts and floods in others
appear to have been alike responsible for the prevalence or dissemination
of this disease. Few parts of the province were immune from it, and the
worst sufferers were the districts of Mymensingh and Malda, where the
death-rate rose to 5.89 and 5.28 per mille, respectively. In Mymensingh
the contamination was spread far and wide through the bodies of cholera
patients being thrown into the flood water, and a similar practice facilitated
the spread of the epidemic in Malda. Elsewhere pollution of the water-supply