OF INDIA DURING THE TEN-YEAR PERIOD 1870-79.
3
Afghanistan, -and among them there was a death-rate of 88 . 12 per 1,000. The year
1872 was, next to 1879, the most unhealthy of the period. In it the death-rate
rose to 27 . 45 per 1,000, but in that year the mortality from cholera alone was
10 . 66 per 1,000. The year 1877 had the lowest mortality during the period—
in it the death-rate was only 11 . 64 per 1,000—and 1874 comes next in order
with a mortality of 14 . 62 per 1,000.
7. The average death-rate of the European troops in the Bengal Presidency
The first five-year period of 1870 79 com-
Pared with the second five-year period.
during the first five years of the ten-year
period 1870-79 was 19 . 53 per 1,000,
and during the second five years it was
22 . 42. If the Army of Afghanistan for 1879 be excluded, and the Army
in cantonments alone be taken into account, the death-rate for the second five
years of the period was 18 . 85 per 1,000, or slightly under the average of
the first five years. In the European Army of the Madras Presidency the
average death-rate for the first five years of the period was 18 . 19, and for the
second five years 17 . 18 per 1,000, so that in the second five years there was a
diminution of 1 per 1,000 in the death-rate. The death-rate in the Bombay
Army, on the other hand, has risen 2 per 1,000 during the second five years of
the period ; in the first five years it averaged 14 . 32, and in the second five
16 . 29 per 1,000. Taking the Army of India as a whole, with the exception of
the troops in Afghanistan in 1879, the average death-rate during the first five
years of the period was 18 . 31, and during the second five years 18 . 07 per 1,000.
8. Of the principal diseases which contributed to the death-rate of the
Dimination in the death-rate from cholera
during 1870-79, as compared with 1860-69, greater
than that from any other disease.
European Army of the Bengal Presidency,
cholera is the one in which the greatest
diminution has taken place during the
ten-year period 1870-79. During the ten
years 1860-69 the average annual mortality from cholera was 9.24 per 1,000, and
during the period 1870-79 it fell to 4 . 18 per 1,000. During the former period
about 30 per cent. of the total death-rate was due to cholera, and in the latter
period less than 20 per cent. was due to that cause. Not only has the
mortality from cholera decreased very much in the Bengal Presidency as a
whole, but the diminution is well marked in each of the provincial areas.
Table contrasting the mortality from cholera among European Troops in the provincial areas
of the Bengal Presidency during the two ten-year periods 1860-69 and 1870-79.
Provincial Areas.
Average death-rate per
1,000 during the
period 1860-69.
Average death-rate per
1,000 during the period
1870-79.
B engal Proper
...
...
...
. . . ...
6 . 2 6
.85
Gangetic Provinces and Oudh ...
...
. . . ...
8.12
4.24
Meerut and Rohilcund
...
...
...
...
6.55
2.06
Agra and Central India
. . . ... ...
...
15.94
3.22
Punjab
. . . ...
...
...
...
...
8.89
3.95
Hill Stations ...
...
...
...
...
...
1.80
1.60
9. Although the total mortality from cholera has thus diminished very
Although the number of deaths from cholera
in the Earopean Army of Bengal has diminished
of late, the percentage of deaths to number treated
has on the whole increased.
much during these last ten years, the
number of deaths out of each 100 cases
treated for that disease has increased.
During the period 1860-69, of those
attacked by cholera 62 . 72 per cent. died, but during the period 1870-79 the
percentage rose to 70 . 26. Cholera has not only become more fatal during
the period 1870-79, as compared with the period immediately preceding it,
but it has, comparing each ten-year period with the one preceding it,
gradually become more virulent in the Bengal Presidency from 1827, the
year in which the death-rate from that disease is first given, up to the
present time.