155 



under medical observation in India were cured, the mortality 

 from this cause would not be reduced by one per cent. 



The annual Indian mortality from snake-bite is stated to 

 be not far from 20,000.* This sounds alarming, but it must 

 be remembered that it occurs in a population of 251 millions, 

 nearly one-quarter that of the whole world. Reduced to 

 sober death-rates it signifies a mortality of 80 per million. 

 This number corresponds very fairly with the mortality from 

 the same cause in the Madras Presidency in which the 

 reported deaths from snake-bite are about 2,000 annually. 



* In 1869 the deaths from snal^ie-bite in Bengal and the Provinces 

 'under the Supreme Government were reported to be as follows : — 



Mortahty per 

 million. 



Ill 



70 

 44 

 111 

 73 

 53 



11,326 126,825,000 Average 88 

 The population of the several provinces I have calculated by 

 deducting 10 per cent, from the numbers obtained in the census of 

 1872, as I find that the population of the Madras Presidency has in- 

 creased at the rate of about S^ per cent, annually since the last census. 

 In the document from which the number of deaths above given is 

 extracted, the total population is taken at 121 milhons which gives 

 93 per miUion as the average death-rate from snake-bite. It will be 

 observed that the death-rate is least in Burma and in the Punjab ; 

 may this be from the manlier character of the people of these coun- 

 tries and from the absence of the domestic reasons for murder which 

 exist amongst the Hindoos 1 It is certain that Burma is more infested 

 with venomous snakes than any part of India, but a Burman would 

 not lie down and die as a soft-fibred Hindu might were he bitten by 

 a snake of slightly venomous character. 



