Disease in India.—The climate and sanitary condition of India give rise to pestilences which at intervals carry desolation over the count7, whilst disease in its worst form is never absent. Ikspitals, richly endowed and admirably regulated, supported as well by government as by private munificence, exist in all the large towns; and great. efforts are constantly made to bring the benefits of medical skill and knowledge within reach of the poorer classes. In all parts of the country dispensaries have been opened, where melt cines are given out, and patients advised. Much of the disease of India is• due to bad water and bad drainage; and where a new water-supply has been introduced, and drains have been made, as in Calcutta, the improvement in the health of the inhabitants has been marked. Nearly 2,000,000 of persons were vaccinated in India in 1872. _Mortality is fearfully aggravated by the passion of the people for pilgrimages. All ages and sexes traverse vast areas, and die by hundreds on the route. The Mohammedan pilgriins go in numbers to Mecca, Kerbela, and Jerusalem; and a large proportion never return.
Emigration and. Colonizatiow—Prom the table at the hoar'. of this article, it appears that the population of Britiala India is very unequally disti•bilted. While Bengal rei;em Wes a city in the density of its population, the adjoining provinces of Assam and Burma11, although no less fertile, have a very small number of inhabitants. The recurrence of famines in this over-peopled district shows the importance of encouraging emigration. The tea-planters are now attracting large'crowds into Assam and other districts. In 1871 the number despatched was 7,022 against 4,863 in 1870, and the number is increasing. In Burmah there were 97,679 coolie immigrants in 1871-72. The distant emigration from India has become very important in recent years, and to regulate it the Indian emigration act (vii. of 1871) was passed, consolidating all previous laws for the protection of the emigrant coolies. One condition with respect to emigration from India to the British colonies is that there shall be 40 women to every 100 men. In 1871-72 the number of emigrants who left Calcutta for the West Indies was 8,231, and the condition as to the proportion of the sexes was fully complied with. In the same year 3,388 returned to Calcutta. As a rule, time Indian emigrants improve their condition by service in the West Indies. It is thought that, except to a few limited districts, colonization from England must ever be impracticable in India on account of the unfavorable character of the climate; for the European race settled in the country rapidly degenerates, and in a few generations becomes effete, and bodily and mentally enervated. A constant stream of British capital, however, and fresh directing energies in its application, is the great want, and what would secure, as nothing else can, the development of its unlimited resources. Indigo and sugar factories, and coffee and tea plantations, have been the principal undertakings in which independent British capital and energy have been hitherto embarked, and the results have been most satisfactory.
Christianity idt hulla.—India was one of the earliest fields of Christian missions.
Tradition assigns it as the scene of the apostle Thomas's labors and martyrdom. Whether this was the case or not, we find a Syrian church planted in Malabar in southern India, which undoubtedly had a very early origin. The Jesuit missionaries, from the middle of the 16th c. onwards, had a large success in India. See XAVIER, FRANCIS. The Catholic missions now confine their attention to their Christian converts. They are divided into two branches—the Portuguese or Goa branch, and the Jesuit mission. The number of the former in Bombay is not known; they number elsewhere 48,000. The Jesuit converts exceed half a million in Madras, Pondicherry, and Travancore. The earliest Protestant missionaries in India came from Holland and Denmark. With the latter mission the eminent Schwartz was connected. England's first missionary effort was put forward by the society for the propagation of the Gospel, and the Christian knowl edge society, which commenced in the beginning of the 18th c., aiding the Danish mission already established in southern India. Subsequently, the East India company adopted the policy of excluding missionaries altogether from their territories; but since the beginning of this century, when these restrictions were withdrawn, a great work has been entered on, in which all denominations are represented. In Bengal 10,000 ryots profess Protestantism. In Chota within the last 20 years, German mission aries have converted 20,000 Koles. Onde and Rohileund there are 2,000 converts. In southern India the numbers are much greater. The entire number of Indian Protes tants in India in 1852 was 128,000; in 1802, 213,182; and in 1872, 318,303. 31r. Mark ham, who gives these figures in his report for 1873, speaking of the Protestant missions, says: "The government of India cannot but acknowledge the obligations under which it is laid by these 600 missionaries, whose blameless example and self-denying labors are infusing new vigor into the stereotyped life of the great population placed under Eng lish rule, and are preparing them to be in every way better men and better citizens of the great empire in which they dwell." In the' proclamation to the princes, chiefs, and people of India, read in the principal cities, on Nov. 1, 1858, it was declared "that none shall be in anywise favored, none molested or disquieted, by reason of their religious faith and observances, but that all shall alike enjoy the equal and impartial protection of the law." The fullest toleration in matters of faith is enjoyed throughout British India. Fanaticism only, as when it seeks to enforce the burning of widows or suttee (q.v.), or offers human beings iu sacrifice, is curbed by the ruling power. There is no exclusively endowed state-church, but government continues to pay the state, grants made to Hindu temples and to Mohammedan mosques. Clergymen of the church of England, the church of Scotland, and the Homan Catholic church, are retained on thegovernment establish ment as civil or military chaplains. There are church of England bishops at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay.