1904.] L. Rogers— Special Report on Fever in Dinajpur Dist. 23 



Special Report on the prevalence of Fevers in the Dinajpur District — By 

 Leonard Rogers, M.D., M.R.C.P., F.R.O.S., B.S., I.M.S. 



The present enquiry was ordered by the Government of Bengal to 

 be carried out on account of the death-rate from "fevers" having risen 

 to over 40 per thousand, a previously unknown maximum, the plan of 

 work being drawn up by the Sanitary Commissioner. The lines of in- 

 vestigation suggested by this officer w ere the following : — Firstly, h'sts 

 of those who had died during the previous year in certain areas or 

 villages were to be obtained from the thana books, and then the villages 

 were to be visited, the relatives of the deceased sought out, and enqui- 

 ries made from them as to the duration and symptoms of the fatal ill- 

 ness, and a diagnosis to be thus arrived at whenever possible. Second- 

 ly, any fever cases met with were to be examined in order to ascertain 

 their exact nature. Owing to the investigation having to be carried 

 out during the latter half of the cold weather and early part of the 

 hot season, which is just the season of minimal prevalence of fever, 

 opportunities of using the latter and more accurate method of enquiry 

 were unfortunately very scanty, but on the other hand the time was most 

 favourable for the village enquiry, which has occupied the greater por- 

 tion of my time, and, in spite of the necessarily imperfect character of 

 the data obtainable, a good deal of valuable information has been collec- 

 ted, which will at least enable a more accurate estimate to be made of 

 the relative frequency of the principal causes of death generally return- 

 ed by the village chaukidars under the very elastic heading " fever " 

 than has hitherto been possible. This portion of the enquiry will, there- 

 fore, first be dealt with. 



Part T. — The Y[llage Enquiry. 



In accordance with the orders of the Sanitary Commissioner certain 

 villages or groups of villages had to be selected for the enquiry. Un- 

 fortunately the only records obtainable of the death-rates of different 

 areas related to whole thanas, and no separate figures were avilable of 

 those of different circles, much less of the separate villages. The thana 

 death-rates were, therefore, first examined, and it was noted that the 



