51
MYSORE DIVISION.
In the province of Mysore the deaths by cholera increased from 12,087 in 1876 to 58,648
in 1877, by bowel-complaints from 4,752 to 33,781, by fevers from 23,939 to 55,934. Small-
pox was four times as fatal as in 1876.
In the Ceded Districts cholera was twice as fatal, small-pox and fever three times, and bowel-
complaints eight times as fatal in 1877 as in 1876.
The mortality from bowel-complaints may safely be taken as an index of the pressure of
famine and destitution. " famine diarrhoea" was a complaint well known and dreaded by all
officers connected with relief-camps ; and I believe it is a fact that fewer recoveries took place
from it than from cholera itself.
Malarious fever was excessively prevalent and very fatal throughout the entire adminis-
trative circle, but especially in the Kurnool and Cuddapah Districts. The mortality from this
cause exceeded that from cholera and famine together. It appeared to be but an aggravated.
form of the usual autumnal fever which prevails throughout these districts ; but whether its
peculiar virulence was due to the lowered vitality of the people exposed to the attack, or had
some necessary connection with the condition of the soil as to dryness or humidity and
consequent ventilation, is a question which can only be suggested but not answered at present.
Possibly both conditions may have conduced to its production, and that the great fatality which
attended it may have been due to the first-named cause, and its great diffusion and prevalence
to the second. Those who have had much experience of cholera epidemics are aware that a
heavy fall of rain is often followed by the sudden cessation or rapid decline of that disease, while
on the contrary a light shower which only moistens, but does not thoroughly wash or saturate,
the soil generally gives it a fresh impulse. Without discussing the exact modes operandi of
the apparent cause or the actual relation between the observed phenomena, is it not allow-
able to presume from analogy that a light or moderate monsoon, such as that of last year, acting
on a soil which had been subjected to an extreme degree of dessication may exert some similar
influence on the malarious fever which is endemic in the districts above mentioned, imparting
to it an intensity of action and a power of diffusion which it does not possess in the ordinary
course of the seasonal phenomena ?
TABLE No . 1.—Population and Deaths.
Population
according. to
Census of 1871.
Total Nu mber
of Deaths.
Ratio per
Mille to
Population.
Province of Mysore
...
...
...
5,055,412
223,033
44.12
Do. of Coorg
...
...
... ...
168,312
8,108
48.17
Bellary
Cuddapah
Kurnool
...
1,668,013
154,853
92.84
Ceded Districts of
...
...
1,360,999
120,501
88.54
...
961,225
85,826
8929
TABLE No. 2.—Death-rates of the Provinces of Mysore and Coorg and of the Ceded Districts for
the last 5 Years.
Years.
Mysore.
Coorg.
Bellary.
Cuddapah.
Kurno ol.
1873
... ...
10 .55
21 . 17
17 . 86
14. 57
16.68
1874
...
...
10.13
21.34
1 6 . 8 0
19.09
16.69
1875
...
...
10.14
24.76
26.24
25 . 27
22.61
1876
...
...
10.73
22.18
33.96
2 9 . 1 9
3 7 . 9 9
1877
...
...
4 4 . 1 2
48. 17
92. 84 .
8 8 . 5 4
8 9 . 2 9
TABILE No. 3.—Actual Number of Deaths registered from 1873 to 1877 inclusive.
Birth of 1877.
Provinces and Districts.
1873.
1874.
1875.
1876.
1877.
24.038 ...
... Mysore ...
...
53,340
51,230
51,276
54,265
223,033
1,742 ...
... Coorg ...
. . .
3,563
3,592
4,167
,3733
8,108
22,455 ...
... Bellary ...
...
29,799
28,034
43,771
56,639
154,853
14,626 ...
... Cuddapal
. . .
19,834
25,976
35,007
39,733
120,501
10,485 ...
... Kurnool
...
16,032
I
16,039
21,731
36,521
85,826