§ GENERAL RUSSELL (Cheltenham)I beg to ask the Secretary of State. for India whether his attention has been called to the yearly increasing virulence of typhoid fever in India, although a few years since this disease was almost unknown in that country; and whether any report has been received by the Government of India as a result of the investigations, which more than two years since he stated were then being conducted into the causes of this disease; and, if so, whether this Report will be laid upon the Table of the House.
§ LORD G. HAMILTONI have observed with regret the increasing prevalence of enteric fever in India, a subject which is continually engaging the attention of the Government of India. I would point out, however, that the virulence of the disease, as tested by the ratio between the number of deaths and. the number of admissions to hospital per thousand of the British troops in India, has decreased. From 1878 to 1883 it was nearly one to two, from 1884 to 1888 about one to three; 1041 since then not much more than one to four. No general Report has been issued as a result of the investigations which are being pursued into the origin of enteric fever in cantonments in India, but I have received special Reports from the Government of India on the sanitary conditions of certain cantonments which have been made the subject of individual investigation. Steps have been taken to remedy the defects reported. With reference to the reply which I gave to my hon. and gallant friend's question of the 23rd February last, I may state that voluntary inoculation against enteric fever at the public expense among the British troops in India has now been sanctioned.