10
from which I have deduced the following table:—
Years.
Number of
Deaths under
12 Years of
Age.
Total Number
of Deaths.
Percentage of
former to latter.
1871 . . .
169
495
34.14
1872 . . .
335
758
44.19
1873 . . .
185
528
35.04
1874 . . .
344
733
46.93
1875 . . .
499
913
54.65
This table is most instructive. The death-rate of children is the surest
test of insanitary conditions; and I hope the Municipal Commissioners will take
instant action to prevent such a responsibility resting on them, as that, in 1875
more than half the deaths in the town occurred among children under 12 years
of age. There was a small-pox epidemic, it is true, which accounts for some of
these deaths; but take 1873, an exceptionally healthy year, and you find that
35 per cent of the total deaths were children.
38. I inspected the Civil Hospital, which is a building utterly unsuited for
the purpose to which it is devoted as the place where the men's ward is now was
formerly an Artillery gun-shed. It is certainly an improper place to keep sick
men in; but if no other building can be provided, its sanitary condition might be
greatly improved by simply making windows in the walls and by providing roof
ventilation of some kind. I also visited the jail which has, I believe, been
condemned on account of its insecurity (2 men escaped from it in July); but the
hospital is placed, as I have before noticed, in the double-domed tomb built by
Kishvar Khan and is manifestly unsuited for the requirements of sick men.
The trench latrines were good, well kept, and free from smell. The pendalls in
the Police lines are not good, and the rooms require more ventilation. The
prickly-pear grove near them requires to be cut down and eradicated. The
lines were very clean.
39. The accounts of the Municipality for 1875 will be found in the
appendix, by which it will be seen that on the 1st January 1875 there was an
opening balance of Rs. 5,240, and that Rs. 19,700 were collected during the year,
giving a total income of Rs. 24,949, whilst the expenditure for the year amounted
to Rs. 21,132. The rate of Municipal taxation per head of population was 10
annas and 10 pies. This is low. In Sholápur it was Rs. 0-14-3, and in Ahmed
-nagar Rs. 1-1-7.
40. The above brief description of the sanitary state of Belgaum will, I
think, convince everyone that the town can no longer be left in its present
condition with due regard to the health of its inhabitants and the safety of
the neighbouring Cantonment; and, as a preliminary measure, I should recommend
that the water in the wells in the town should be analysed, commencing with
those in the highest level, and gradually descending, care being taken to know the
exact height of each well until the lowest part of the town was reached, and then
that the water in every well near the Mochi lines and round Arli Kuthe Deshpandi
Gulli should be carefully examined. This is the lowest part of the town, and the
water is within a few feet of the surface. Lately there was an outbreak of cholera
in it, and8 deaths took place, 5 occurring in one house. Good as the soil is, and pro
-bably exercising, as it does, a chemical action on the organic matter percolating
through it, yet no soil can be fouled in the way that on which Belgaum stands has