CHAPTER IX.
PUBLIC HEALTH.
General Health — Malaria - Cholera — Small-pox — Vital statistics. Medical Institutions — Civil hospital at Vizagapatam — Institutions at Bimlipatam — Pálkonda — Vizagapatam — Vizianagram — And Bobbili — Tho Waltair Lunatic Asylum.
Except for the malaria of the Agency, the district is healthy enough and is not known for the special prevalence of any particular diseases. Elephantiasis used to be common in Bimlipatam and Vizagapatam, but has been checked since more care has been taken regarding the water-supply. Beri-beri prevails along the coast. Leprosy is brought into prominence by the leper asylums the Schleswig-Holstein Mission has established at Jeypore and Sálúr, but is not really more common than in the average district.
Malaria prevails throughout the whole of the Agency. The worst localities are perhaps the Bissamkatak side, the Malkanagiri taluk and the Golgonda hills. The worst season of the year for the disease is undoubtedly in the rains, which is contrary to the usual rule in such matters. The least unhealthy period is from November up to the first thunderstorms of April. Malaria is as bad in spots which are open, elevated and free from jungle (such as Koraput) as in those (like Jeypore town) which lie low in situations shut in by hill and jungle. Black-water fever is common among European residents in the hills. The hill people themselves seem to suffer little from malaria. If they ever do contract the disease they take no medicine, but fast and offer sacrifices to the local deity, beginning with fowls and going upwards through pigs to goats and at last to buffaloes, until either the fever leaves them or they realize that it is their fate to have to bear it.
Cholera has usually been most severe when the seasons have been most adverse. In 1866 the deaths from it numbered 11,695; in 1877, 6,923; in 1878, 4,456; in 1889, 7,065; in 1892, 3,229; and in 1897, 5,103. In 1906, on the other hand, though the season was good the disease was particularly virulent, 9,685 deaths (a record) occurring up to the end of August. Doubtless on the plains the general increase in sanitary knowledge has much to do with the general decline in mortality from cholera which has
