THE annual report of the Sanitary Commissioner for the year 1916 states that of the total number of deaths recorded during the year was as usual high. Making every allowance for inaccuracies in the registration of the causes of deaths, due to the fact that the task is usually left to the village chowkidar or policeman, this is too high a percentage. Fevers are by universal admission preventible causes of death; at any rate they lend themselves to successful treatment. But neither prevention nor cure can be thought of where as the Commissioner states, more than 90 per cent. of the population live in rural areas and where the vast majority of people die without accurate diagnosis. The triple causes of this deplorable state of things are ignorance poverty and the inadequate attention given by the authorities to what ought to be one of the first objects of their care, sanitation and medical relief.
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