24 Medical Report on the causes 



province, I have considered it of the utmost importance, that an accu- 

 rate deduction should be made, and have, accordingly, prepared a series 

 of Statistical tables, of all registered patients, or otherwise, in Akyab ; 

 certain data can then be easily formed for the amelioration of the 

 pestilence, with an almost certainty of success. In preparing these 

 tables, I have referred both to the returns of the Civil as well as of 

 the Military Services, and although discrepancy of results does some- 

 times appear, yet circumstances, which will hereafter be alluded to, 

 account for these apparent differences. The following tables are 

 formed with a strict view to the development of the foregoing obser- 

 vations. Columns consecutively placed, shew at one view, the num- 

 ber of patients admitted, their classification into Endemic and Epide- 

 mic diseases, and subsequent mortality. A slight amplification of 

 the Epidemic diseases appeared necessary, and two columns under 

 this head, shew the number of small-pox and cholera patients, not 

 only Abstracts for the different years, but likewise for the different 

 months have been shewn, — as in all tropical climates the regularity 

 of the monsoon, exerts a considerable influence upon the health of 

 the inhabitants. I may here add, that the three Appendices, marked 

 A. B. C, are from the official reports from the three Hospitals in the 

 Station, — Military, Civil and Jail ; and as every individual case is regis- 

 tered, the results must be correct. 



2. The Report A. is the most valuable, as the patients there 

 exhibited, being Mughs and Sepoys of the Arracan Local Battalion, 

 assimilate to the natives of the Province in every particular. The 

 Burkundauz on the contrary, are chiefly natives of the adjoining 

 parts of Bengal, and the prisoners are composed mostly of men who 

 have been transported from Bengal and the North Western Provinces. 

 This consideration is of the utmost importance, as by it certain 

 discrepancies in result, can be clearly accounted for. I allude, of 

 course, to the prevalence of disease in Arracan. In the Report A. 

 the most singular feature, and one which becomes immediately ap- 

 parent, is the immense amount of sickness arising from Endemic 

 causes in the year 1838. More than one-half the patients admitted, 

 appeared to have suffered from diseases which have arisen from 

 locality alone ; and it is gratifying to observe the gradual improvement 

 of this class of disease up to the year 1842, which satisfactorily 



