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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 23, p. 378.

378 TINNEVELLY DISTRICT was 34,863; in 18go-1, 53,130; in rgoo-1, 66,283; and in 1903-4, 73426, of whom ro,8rg were girls. On March 31, 1904, there were 1;297 primary, 75 secondary, and r1 special schools, besides 3 col leges. There were in addition 538 private schools, with 13,196 male and 544 female scholars. Of the 1,386 educational institutions classed as public, 2 were managed by the Educational department, 58 by local boards, and 7 by municipalities, 1,052 were aided from public funds, and 267 were unaided. Of the male population of school-going age 29 per cent. were in the primary stage of instruction, and of the female population of the same age about 6 per cent. Among Musalmans the corresponding percentages were go and 8. About 150 schools are maintained for Panchamas or depressed castes, with 5,6oo pupils. Chiefly owing to missionary influence, female education is compara- tively advanced in Tinnevelly, there being 1,goo girls in secondary and nearly 8,200 in primary schools. There were also nine girls reading in the collegiate course at the Sarah Tucker College at Palamcottah. The great majority of the girls belong to the native Christian community. The two Arts colleges for males are in Tinnevelly town. About Rs. 4,65,000 was spent on education in 103-4, of which Rs. 1,30,000 was derived from fees. Of the total, RS. 2,6o,ooo was devoted to primary education. There are r 1 hospitals and 12 dispensaries in the District. Seven of the former and nine of the latter are maintained by the local boards, and the remainder (four hospitals in the municipal towns and three dispensaries, two in Tnnevelly town and one in Palamcottah) from municipal funds. Besides these, the various mission agencies have established four hospitals and three dispensaries. These institutions have accommodation for log male and 73 female in-patients. A Local fund hospital for women and children has recently been built at Palam- cottah. About 339,000 persons, of whom 2,500 were in-patients, were treated in r903, and ro,ooo operations were performed. The total cost of all the institutions was Rs. 6r,ooo, which was mainly met from Local and municipal funds, and to a small extent from the income of endowments, and (in the case of mission hospitals) from subscriptions. Vaccination has always been fairly satisfactorily conducted in Tinne- velly, and in 1903-4 a large number of operations were performed at the comparatively low cost for each successful case of 3 annas 1 pie. The proportion of successful operations per r,ooo of the population was 39-4, which again was the highest rate in the Presidency except in the Nilgiris. Vaccination is compulsory in the municipalities and in rg out of the 36 Unions. [Further particulars of T innevelly District will be found in the District Manual by A. J. Stuart (1879), and in Bishop Caldwell's History of Tinnevelly (1881).]