( 98 )
more than half those returned from the other circles. The total of cholera
deaths registered in this district is 1,906.
Balasur.—Cholera prevailed all over the district, and throughout the year.
The time of the endemic intensity of the disease was March and November,
yet it was generally severe from February to July inclusive, and during the
whole of the last three months of the year. The chief route for pilgrims from
Northern and North-Western India passes through the whole length of the
district. The total cholera deaths of the year is given at 2,776. The highest
rate per 1,000 occurred in the Baliapal circle, which has no pilgrim route pass-
ing through it. The death-rates of the circles most severely affected were as
follows:—Baliapal 12.76, Chandbali 4.54, Dhamnagar 3.84, Jaleswar 3.21, and
the town of Balasur itself 7.93 per 1,000.
Midnapur.—Cholera present in this district all the year round, but in
severe form in the first four months only. February and March were the most
fatal months. From May to November inclusive, the disease did not occur with
severity; there was a slight increase in June and again in November and
December. The disease was reported from 25 of the 26 circles of the district.
The severest mortality occured in the circles : Kontai at the rate of 16.58 per
1,000 of population, Nandigram 5.91, Bhagwanpur 4.69, Kedgree 3.63.
Though this distict is traversed by the great stream of pilgrims to Puri from
north and north-west, the circles which suffered most from cholera, lying as
they do to the eastward of the district, are not traversed by pilgrims in any
number.
All the districts of the Rajshahi and Kuch Bihar Divisions suffered from
cholera in 1875, but in different degrees of severity, as is shown in the follow-
ing statement:—
DISTRICTS.
Dinagepur
Malda
Rajshahi
Rangpur
Bogra
Pabna
Darjiling
Jalpaiguri
Deaths
1,268
1,712
3,247
5,664
1,888
2,153
150
1,353
Ratio per 1,000
of population.
.84
2.53
.95
2.63
2.73
1.77
1.58
NUMBER OF VILLAGES.
In district.
7,108
2,100
4,228
4,206
2,666
2,792
250
Attacked.
?
382
176
1,225
512
1,661
90
Except in Darjiling and Jalpaiguri, which has already been referred to,
cholera was present all the year in the above districts. The seasonal activity
of cholera in these districts is somewhat different from that of the more
southern districts of the province, for the disease did not, as a rule, reach its
maximum intensity till April, and in the case of Rangpur, May ; but Novem-
ber was the most fatal month. In Darjiling district some of the Terai tea-
plantations suffered severely from cholera.
In the districts of Bhagalpur Division the seasonal prevalence of cholera
differs from that of the districts already considered, and seems to observe a
less constant rule in regard to its increase and decline, at the same time the
periods of prevalence are more decidedly marked, and the intervals more defined,
whilst, further, the disease appears to be less general over the whole area of
the districts. Thus in Monghyr no death from cholera was registered in January,
in February only 1, in March 28, and in April 79; in May the deaths rose to
424, and in June to 788 ; from June till September there was a decline in the
number of deaths; in October a slight increase, and then again a steady
decline till the end of the year; there were but 32 deaths in December. The
disease was present in every circle of the district. In Bhagalpur there was
but one death registered in each of the first three months of the year; 224 in
the next three months, and in the rainy season, from July to October inclusive,
1,406; in November 1882, and in December only 3 deaths were registered.
The whole of the 13 circles of the district were affected, but in 3 of them the
disease prevailed slightly. In Purnea, which borders on the Rajshahi division,
the seasonal prevalence of cholera resembles that of the districts of Rajshahi,