24 L. "RogeYS— Special Report on Fever in Binajpur Dist. [Snpplt. 



areas which returned the highest ** fever " death-rates were the three 

 northern thanas, while the two in the southern extreme of the district 

 had much the lowest death-rates. The intermediate ones all had a fairly- 

 uniform and interemediate rate. It was therefore arranged to examine 

 circles in each of the three northern very unhealthy areas, in the two 

 southern comparatively healthy ones, and in two intermediate ones, one 

 to the east of Dinajpur and one to the west (see map). The headquar- 

 ters of the thanas were first visited and enquiries made as to any spe- 

 cially unhealthy parts made, which, however, seldom resulted in any defi- 

 nite information on that point being gained owing to the absence of mor- 

 tality figures for small areas. The circles were, therefore, chosen to 

 illustrate as far as possible difEerent conditions. Thus to the east of 

 the town of Dinajpur a circle was selected which was bounded on both 

 sides and to the south by streams, one of which was of a specially stag- 

 nant and swampy nature. At Birganj to the north-west of the district 

 one group of villages on a main stream to the north-east of the thana 

 was chosen, and another well away from the river in a drier area to the 

 north-west. In the extreme south a business, as opposed to an agri- 

 cultural class of people were selected at Nitpur, as well as a village popu- 

 lation on either side of it, but unfortunately the population of the town 

 proved to be so " floating " a one that no relative of many of the de- 

 ceased could be found to give any information as to their illnesses. 

 Circles containing three to four thousand inhabitants were taken, and 

 a list of the deaths in each village returned as " fever " was obtained from 

 the thana, together with the name of their nearest relatives, who were 

 then collected in the villages and questioned. The notes of each case 

 were taken down in shorthand, a regular series of questions being put 

 designed to cover the principal symptoms of the diseases which most 

 commonly produce fever, supplementary ones being asked whenever 

 necessary. As a rule the answers received were surprisingly clear, and 

 in the great majority of the cases a very fair history was obtained. In 

 one or two villages only was a tendency noticed to systematically 

 answer every question in the negative without a moment's considera- 

 tion, and these cases had to be omitted from the tables. An idea of 

 the nature of the information obtained can best be conveyed by record- 

 ing the notes of a few consecutive cases such as the following 

 group : — 



Thana, Thakagaon, village, Salanda. 



No. 1. Female; aged 67; died llth February, 1903. Informant 

 her son. Had suffered from several attacks of intermittent fever during 

 the last two months accompanied with shivering fits Tlie la«t fatal 

 attack of fever was of a continued type and lasted about twelve days. 



