156 



In 18G9 they were 2,192 which, on a population of 26,000,000, 

 gives 82 per million. 



Taking this rate for granted (although snake-bite covers 

 a multitude of suspicious deaths in the mofussil,) we must 

 still compare it with other causes of mortality ; we thus 

 have for the Madras Presidency — 



82 deaths by snake-bite, per million, 



23 do. by wild beasts, 



To give an instance of the purely sensational character 

 of the outcry for the necessity of reducing the mortality 

 by snake-bite, I will quote the records of the British army 

 in India during the years 1860-71. In these twelve years 

 there were only four deaths by snake-bite hut thirty-eight 

 from dog-hite. Taking the total strength for the twelve 

 years as a population of 717,592 Europeans for one year, 

 we find that the annual mortality amongst them from 

 snake-bite was at the rate of only 5*5 per million.* It is 

 curious that whilst sensation has fixed on the mortality 

 from snake-bite, amounting to 82 per million in Indians, 

 and 5J per million in Europeans, nothing is said about the 

 53 deaths per million caused amongst Europeans by dog- 

 bite.i* 



* One of the four cases 1 have shown was from imprudence. (See 

 Appendix). 



t The perfect inefficacy of the war w^aged annually against the dog 

 population affords evidence of the hopelessness of attempting the 

 extermination of venomous snakes. Every town and village in 

 India is invested with dogs which are utterly useless, a great 

 nuisance and danger, and dependent entirely on man. Nothing 



