No.243/51OF 1879.

FROM

            THE SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT,

                        N.-W. PROVINCES AND OUDH,

To.

Dated Naini Tal, the 28th August, 1879.

SIR,

SANITATION DEPT.

         I AM directed to forward, for the information of
the annual report on the working of the lock-
hospitals in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh for the year 1878.

   2. The table of results at page 19 (the first 87 paras. are devoted to
resumés of the committees' reports) discloses a very unsatisfactory state of
things. As compared with 1877, expenditure on these institutions in-
creased by about 13 per cent., while the other results are as under :-

   From beginning to end the verdict—by those most interested in the
management—is unfavorable. There were more women on the register
by 12 per cent.; the expenditure was 13 per cent. higher ; and yet the
ratio per 1,000 of men admitted to hospital for venereal disease shows an
increase of 50 per cent. While Chakráta, Jhánsi, Naini Tal, and Fyzabad
are said to have been the most successfully worked, an increase of disease
is found everywhere, except in Naini Tal, where troops are not constant-
ly stationed.

   3. The Sanitary Commissioner considers that the scarcity which
prevailed is the real cause of this special ill-success in the year's working ;
and it would certainly seem that under the pressure of want many women
of the poorer classes, who are not registered prostitutes, and who are be-
lieved to have been more or less diseased, did prostitute themselves to the
soldiers. But if this of itself is obviously insufficient, other reasons are
not wanting. There was a relaxation of restrictions, apparently, on the
part of the local Military authorities, in consequence of which soldiers
(with the exception of one regiment mentioned in para. 95) found little
difficulty in cohabiting with unregistered women. To this must be added
the unfavorable circumstances of the year. The war necessitated a great
deal of marching and moving ; and this, while aggravating disease, gave
more than the usual opportunities for soldiers to indulge in cohabitation
with other than registered women—opportunities which, owing apparent-
ly to a dislike to cohabit with the the latter, are readily seized. And as
the disease was found to be more rife and more virulent among the casual