44
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF MADRAS.
TABLE No. 3.
Births
of 1875.
Provinces and Districts.
1871.
1872.
1873.
1874.
1875.
34,846
Mysore
58,218
57,790
53,340
51,230
51,276
2,084
Coorg
3,231
3,371
3,563
3,592
4,167
42,250
Bellary
22,333
29,241
29,799
28,034
43,771
23,083
Cuddapah
20,642
17,991
19,834
25,976
35,007
17,693
Kurnool
13,242
16,423
16,032
16,039
21,731
Tables Nos. 1 to 3 inclusive exhibit
—
1. The census returns of the population, the total number of deaths, and the ratio of deaths
per mille of the population of this administrative circle for 1875.
2. The death-rates of the same circle for the quinquennium ending 1875.
3. A quinquennial registration of the deaths in the same circle, with the aggregate of
births for 1875.
The census was taken in 1871; only approximately correct then, it is, as a matter of course,
year by year becoming less and less accurate. For statistical purposes it is advisable that a
census should be taken at short intervals, say every five years. The death-rate of the Province of
Mysore given in the returns as 10.14 per mille cannot be accepted as even approximately correct.
The returns of the last five years go far to prove that nearly two in every three casualties have in
all probability escaped registration. The returns from the Province of Coorg are more reliable,
and are becoming year by year more trustworthy. With a mortality, chiefly from fever,
exceeding that of 1874 by only 572, the registration gives a ratio of 24.76 per mille, the ratio
in 1871 being 19.20 per mille. In the absence of epidemics of cholera, small-pox, and fever it is
probable that the death-rate of Coorg would be fairly represented by 25 or 26 per mille. The
death registration of the Ceded Districts is still very defective. In 1874 the returns for the
Bellary District recorded 16.80, for the Cuddapah District 19.09, and for the Kurnool District
16.69 per mille. The increment of the aggregate of mortality of 1875, consequent upon the
addition of 8,000 deaths from cholera, 1,300 from fever, and 800 from bowel-complaints, has only
sufficed to raise the death-rate to a point considerably below what must be regarded as the
normal death ratio, which in these fever-stricken districts cannot be less than 30 per mille.
The birth registration in the administrative circle is everywhere more or less seriously
defective. In all cases it is lower than the aggregate of deaths; for example, in Mysore there
were in 1875 68 births to every 100 deaths, 50 to every 100 in Coorg, 97 to every 100 in
Bellary, 58 to every 100 in Cuddapah, and 81 to every 100 in Kurnool. Were these returns
true, the depopulation of the province and districts must be going on steadily. Now the birth-rate
is higher in India than in England, and in England it yields an annual excess of births over
deaths of 12.8 per mille.
The birth-rate in France is 26 . 26; the death-rate 23.63.
Do.
Austria 39.06;
do. 30.34.
A high birth-rate must exist in India in consequence of the universal prevalence of early
marriages.
The Mysore census gives the birth-rate as 37 per mille.
The Central Provinces
do.
49
do.
The North-West Provinces
do.
45.9 do.
Meerut District
do.
49
do.
Bombay
do.
39
do.
In this administrative circle the ratio of births to population according to the returns varies
from 6 . 89 per mille in Mysore to 25 . 3 per mille in the Bellary District, the true ratio being
probably from 35 to 40 per mille. These facts show how defective death and birth registrations
are alike in the Ceded Districts and in the Province of Mysore.
TABLE No. 4, showing the Deaths from the more Important Diseases affecting the Population
for the Year 1875.
Provinces and Districts.
Cholera.
Small-pox.
Fevers.
Bowel -
complaints.
Mysore
3 , 1 3 9
544
30,467
4,736
Coorg
5
66
3,255
324
Bellary
2,336
1,282
13,571
2,075
Cuddapah
4,651
626
23,540
1,078
Kurnool
8 8 6 1 , 2 3 2
16,136
514