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BENGAL PROVINCE, 1880.
The monthly mortality registered from cholera among the civil population
is shown in the annexed tabular statement. Of the total 39,643 deaths, 21,901
were males, and 17,742 females; the ratio per mille of population is 0·66, and
per cent. of all deaths registered 4·30.
The returns show a very marked decrease in the prevalence of cholera in
1880 as compared with the total mortality from the disease registered in the
preceding year, for which the figures are 136,363, the decrease being 96,720
deaths. As shown in the statement, the cholera of 1880 visited every district
in the province, and was present in every month of the year. The disease
prevailed epidemically in only 19 circles, against 87 in the preceding year; was
severe in only 45, against 98; was mildly prevalent in 493, against 458; and was
entirely absent from 118, against 30. It affected 9,447 villages, or 5·02 per
cent. of the total number of villages in the province, against 23,663, or 12·39
per cent. in 1879. The mortality registered in the urban circles as a whole
amounted to 3,253 deaths, or 1·37 per mille of population, against 11,513, or
4·90 per mille in 1879. For the rural circles the figures are 36,390, or ·63 per
mille, against 124,850, or 2·16 per mille respectively. Contrary to the experience
of 1879, both the urban and rural circles suffered to a considerably lesser extent,
the preponderance in the rate of abatement being observable in the urban circles.
Thus, both in extent of prevalence and fatality the disease exhibited very
considerable abatement as compared with 1879 or any of the preceding years,
back to 1875, from which year death registration may be said to have made
great improvement, as is shown in the subjoined tabular statement:-
	
CIRCLES OF REGISTRATION.
Death-rate per mille of population.

1880.
1879.
1878.
1877.
1876.
1875.
Urban
 1·37
4·90
3·69
4·24
4·97
2·77
Rural
 ·63
2·16
1·49
2·52
3·22
1·77
Totals
·66
2·27
1·58
2·58
3·27
1·80
Only the three districts of Champaran, death-rate 3·31 per mille, Puri 3·08,
and Balasur 2·73, which show the highest rates of cholera mortality of the
year, suffered on the whole with any approach to epidemic severity, against 19
districts in 1879 with death-rates ranging from 2·14 to 8·10 per mille of
population.
The seasonal incidence of the cholera of 1880 is shown in the following
diagrams and statements separately for each of the four divisions of the province
and for the province as a whole, together with the rainfall of each month:-
Cholera in Bengal proper in 1880.