50
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF MADRAS.
Years.
Rate per Cent. of
Average Strength Present.
Average Strength.
Admissions.
Daily Sick.
All Deaths.
Pensioned.
Sick Leave.
1873
...
...
80.40
2.51
1.13
1.77
1.87
1874
...
...
63.46
2.50
.80
2.95
1.74
1875
...
...
70.30
2.70
. 8 2
3.57
1.65
Average ...
71.38
2.57
.91
2.76
1.75
1876
...
. . .
61.16
2.62
1.23
2.16
1.46
The following corps were serving in this division on the 31st December
1876 :—
Head-Quarters Sappers and Miners.
23rd Regiment Native Infantry.
36th
do.
do.
28th
do.
do.
30th
do.
do.
Deputy Surgeons-General George Smith, M.D., and P. G. FitzGerald, M.D., held
charge of this division and that of the Ceded Districts, the latter of whom submits
the combined report, which is as follows :
—
PUBLIC HEALTH.
Vital statis-
tics.
Vital statistics. —The following tables, numbered from 1 to 8, illustrate the state of the public
health in the Provinces of Mysore and Coorg and in the Ceded Districts during the past year,
and afford the means of comparing it with that of the preceding four years. Although they
furnish internal evidence that the process of registration of births and deaths is still very
incomplete, yet the information that may be extracted from them is valuable and interesting.
The year 1876 was a peculiarly unhealthy one. Cholera, which had appeared in the previous
year, continued and acquired greater extension as well as force towards the end of the year 1876,
when scarcity merged in famine, and large bodies of men, women and children, driven by want,
crowded to the relief works opened for their benefit in various parts of the country. Small-
pox, which had been gradually declining during the previous three years, received a fresh impulse
in the year under report, which was distinguished by an unusually dry state of the atmosphere
and a temperature somewhat above the average, conditions that appear to favor the prevalence
and propagation of this disease. Fevers added their normal quota to the death-rate. Bowel-
complaints were less fatal than in any of the preceding four years, a circumstance which may
partly be explained by the prevalence of cholera, which probably absorbed into itself many cases
of diarrhœa, that, under other conditions, would have been returned under that designation.
That the registration is unreliable is shown by the fact that, notwithstanding the addition of
12,087 deaths from cholera in the Mysore Province to the ordinary mortality, the deaths are
still returned as only 10.73 per thousand of the population for the past year. The registered
mortality in Coorg and the Ceded Districts, though higher than this, is still probably far below
the reality.
Table 3 shows that the mortality in the Ceded Districts has gradually increased from 63,655
in 1872 to 1,32,893 in 1876, and Table 4 shows that of this number 89,671 were due to cholera,
small-pox and fevers. In other words, 67.47 per cent. of the entire mortality in the Ceded
Districts was attributable to preventable diseases. In Mysore and Coorg 69.36 per cent. of
the deaths were due to the same diseases.
The birth registration shows a decrease compared with the year 1875 in Mysore, Coorg and
Bellary District, and an increase in the districts of Kurnool and Cuddapah. The ratios of the
births and deaths per mille of the population in the different districts of this administrative
circle during the past year are as follow :—
Birth-rate
per Mille.
Death per
Mille.
Excess of Deaths
over Births.
Mysore ...
...
...
...
6.80
10.73
3.93
Coorg
...
...
...
...
10.80
22.18
11.38
Bellary ...
...
24.60
33.96
9.36
Cuddapah...
...
...
...
17.70
2 9 . 1 9
11.49
Kurnool ...
...
...
...
19.10
37.99
16.89