NORTII-IVESTERN PROVINCES AND OUDII. 403 the Calcutta University; and of these 393 passed successfully. Of the 393 successful candidates, 293 passed the matriculation, 70 the First Arts, 22 the Bachelor of Arts, 7 the Master of Arts, and I the Bachelor of Law examination. Four institutions containing 570 pupils are affiliated to the University. The Delhi College (in the Punjab) is the representative of Arabic and Persian literature, as that of Benares is of Sanskrit. There are also a Government aided and Church Missionary Society (St. John's) college at Agra; and there was a Government college at Bareilly, now abolished. The Muir Central College has recently been established at Allahabad, at which the higher education, in preparation for university honours, is being gradually concentrated. The number of normal schools is 12 Government and 2 aided, 3 of the whole number being for mistresses; pupils, 516. There are 2 aided industrial schools, with 169 pupils. Girls' schools number 18, and contain 509 pupils. It should not be forgotten, in the history of Indian education, that under a former Lieutenant-Governor, Mr. Thomason, the North-Western Provinces took the lead in the establishment of village schools, and the promotion of primary education. There are now three circles of inspection; and the number of halkábandi schools (village circle schools) is so greatly increased as to bring primary education within easy reach of all who choose to avail themselves of it. Throughout the Provinces, Urdu or Hindustání is spoken by the Muhammadans and Káyasths; but Hindi is the true vernacular of the country, being spoken by the rural population with greater or less purity, according to the proportionate influence of Muhammadan colonization. The educated classes usually employ the Persian character; the traders use a corrupt form of the Nagari letters. The Provinces contained 108 printing presses in 1875-76, and 267 in 1884. The number of literary societies formed by natives is 19, the oldest dating back to 1861. Medical Aspects. — The climate of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh as a whole may be classed as hot and dry. Excluding the observations taken at places of abnormal altitude, the general mean temperature in 1883 was 76°3° F., and the general mean rainfall 24 inches ; but of course these figures vary enormously with the District, the season of the year, and the time of the day or night. The Himalayan Districts are cool, and have a much greater rainfall than the plains. In these Districts the rainfall in 1883 was 56 inches. They are succeeded by a broad submontane belt, the Tarai, which is rendered moist by the mountain torrents, and is covered by forest from end to end. This region bears a singularly bad reputation as the most unhealthy in all India, and in many parts only the acclimatized aborigines can withstand its deadly malaria. The plain country is generally warm and dry, the heat becoming more oppressive as the general level
