Recommendations.

209

epidemic manifestation of the disease in these parts
at the present time, although cases of ordinary malarial
fever and other conditions are still returned under the head
of kála-ázar. The nomenclature of these diseases will be
discussed later.

      (I) (a) Nowgong. —The epidemic reached the extreme
north-east end of this district some three years ago, as far at
least as it is inhabited, which is only a few miles beyond
Silghat. It has largely subsided in the southern and western
parts of the district, and is on the decrease in the central parts
also, including the station and surrounding villages, but is still
increasing in the north-eastern corner, especially along the
eastern end of the Kulung river, and also in a few of the more
sparsely-populated parts between the Kulung and the Brahma-
putra rivers which have been comparatively recently attacked.
This decrease is probably greater than is indicated by the
slight fall in the number of deaths returned from fever and
kála-ázar in 1896, for there appears to have been a distinct
improvement in registration during the last year in this
district. A further decrease in the mortality of the district as
a whole may be looked for during the current year (1897), so
that no very active measures are required. There is still
some scope for the beneficial effects of instructing the people
in the necessary precautions to be taken for preventing
the spread of the disease in the more recently infected parts.
The villages along the Kulung are practically continuous,
so that this would not be a favourable part for moving the
villages from the infected sites, but some of the more
scattered places towards the Brahmaputra river would be
much more suitable for the carrying out of this measure.

      (b) South Mangaldai. —Here again, the disease has
greatly decreased in the south-western parts, especially
around Sipajhar and west of Rangamati. North of Mangaldai
town, and especially in Bor Autola, it is still bad, but has only
just begun to affect a few villages in the southern parts of the
Kalaigaon tahsil, which is more sparsely populated than the

2 E