Calcutta Fever Hospital & Municipal Enquiry — Three Reports, 1845–1847

A significant group of three mid-19th-century British India public-health and municipal reform reports, printed in Calcutta by the Bishop's College Press, concerning the proposed establishment of a Fever Hospital and the investigation of sanitation, drainage, taxation and municipal administration in Calcutta.

Bound together are:

Abridgement of the Report of the Committee Appointed by the Right Honourable the Governour of Bengal for the Establishment of a Fever Hospital, and for Inquiring into Local Management and Taxation in Calcutta.
Originally issued 1840; this copy reprinted at Bishop's College Press, 1845.

Second Report of the Committee...
Calcutta: Bishop's College Press, 1846.

Third Report of the Committee...
Calcutta: Bishop's College Press, 1847.

The first report arose from an 1835 proposal by surgeon J. R. Martin for a fever hospital in Calcutta, accompanied by observations on the city's medical topography. The resulting government inquiry expanded well beyond the hospital itself to examine the sanitary condition of Calcutta and its suburbs, drainage, cleansing, municipal improvements, local taxation and administration.

The contents provide unusually detailed primary-source evidence for the development of public health and urban sanitation in colonial Calcutta. Material shown includes the Salt Water Lake drainage, Soondurbun canals, canal tolls and tonnage, municipal administration, and plans for improving the health of the city.

The British Library preserves the committee's surviving papers as the Calcutta Fever Hospital and Municipal Enquiry (Grant) Committee 1836–47. Its catalog confirms the 1840 abridgement reprinted in 1845 and separately records the 1846 Second Report.

The investigation was recognized as important even contemporaneously: an 1843 British medical review described the original report as addressing the “sanatory improvement” of Calcutta and measures aimed at reducing endemic disease and assisting the poor.

An excellent primary source for collectors and researchers interested in British India, Calcutta/Kolkata, colonial medicine, epidemiology, sanitation, hospitals, urban history, municipal government and the history of public health.

Condition: Binding substantially defective. The text block survives but is effectively disbound / lacking its original boards, with exposed and deteriorated spine structure, looseness and edge wear as shown. Some marginal chipping, occasional marks, toning and handling wear. The title pages and photographed text are generally clean and readily legible. Sold as a historical reference copy in need of conservation or rebinding. Please examine photographs carefully.

Calcutta Fever Hospital Bengal India British India colonial medicine public health sanitation epidemiology medical history Kolkata 1845 1846 1847 Bishop's College Press municipal reform taxation drainage Salt Water Lake Soondurbun canal hospital history