?( 106 )
BENGAL PROVINCE, 1876.
During the year 1876 several changes were made, which affected the
number, population, areas, and statistics of the general and selected circles
of the province.
During the year 1876 cholera was present in the province during every
month, and prevailed with more or less intensity in every district. Out of
the 666 circles into which the province is divided, the disease was epidemic in
154, very severe in 178, mildly prevalent in 315, and entirely absent from
only 19; and 27,242 villages of the 188,805 villages in the province were
attacked by the disease.
The monthly mortality registered from cholera in the selected areas is
shown in the annexed tabular statement for 1876.
The total of cholera deaths registered is 23,055, or at the rate of 3·35 per
mille of the population to which the figures refer.
Of these deaths, 11,066, or 5·52 per mille of population were returned from
the Urban circles, and 11,989, or 2·45 per mille from rural circles. Inclusive
of these deaths, the total mortality registered from cholera in 1876 in the
entire province amounts to 196,590, or 3·27 per mille of population, and
19·99 per cent, of the total mortality of the year against 108,262, or 1·80 per
mille of population in 1875; the excess being 88,328, or 1·47 per mille.
The figures are considerably highest of any year since the introduction of
registration in 1869, and show a very great increase in the mortality registered
from cholera in 1876 as compared with the returns for the preceding year.
Part of this excess is due to improved registration, but most of it is attributable
to an actual increase in the activity of cholera in 1876 over that of 1875,
especially in the cyclone-stricken areas. The districts in which the highest
mortality was registered, as compared with the preceding year, are shown in the
subjoined statement.
Statement giving the Rates of Death per Mille of Population.
DISTRICTS.
             RATIO PER 1,000.
DISTRICTS.
         RATIO PER 1,000.

1876.
       1875.

1876.         
1875.
Noakhali          
20·34
        2·93
Lohardagga              3·14
      1·18

Darjiling
18·30
        1·58
Patna
                3·02
      1·32
Balasur               
9·55
        5 60
Murshidabad             
   3·00   
·53
Faridpur
9·32
        2·17
Gya
               2·82
      1·79
Bakirganj            
8·91
        1·60
24-Parganah             
     2·79 
3·64
Chittagaon
8.91
        .54
Jalpaiguri              
2·61
      3·22
Jaisur
7·14
        3·60
Hugli                   
2·54
      1·01
Dhaka                
6·06
        3·57
Tipperah.               
   2·45   
1·44
Puri                  
5·75
        2·47
Bardwan
       2.36
1·04
Shahabad         
3·83
        ·78
Howrah                  
2·32
      2·58
Naddia             
3·51
        5·48
Mymensinghi             
2·30
      1·86
Kattak              
3·37            
            2·74  
      Rajshahi  
2·07
·95
Pabna
3·24
        1·77



The seasonal prevalence and fatality of cholera in the four grand divisions
into which the province is divided, Bengal, Behar, Orissa, and Chota Nagpur,
as well as in the province as a whole, are exhibited in the following series of
diagrams, which give also the rate of mortality per mille of population and
the rainfall for each month of the year.