2
districts, headed
by Mymensingh
(58,209) and followed by Rangpur
(15,470), Noakhali (11,889) Murshida-
bad (11,611), Jalpaiguri (8,595), Farid-
pur (7,213), Nadia (6,194), Bakarganj
(5,843), Dinajpur
(5,330),
Pabna
(5,201), and Burdwan (5,083); in 8
others the increase was below 5,000.
Decreases were reported from Tippera
(11,897), Bogra
(10,328), Khulna
(8,273), Birbhum (7,310), Midnapur
(6,019), 24-Parganas (3,211), Rajshahi
(2,573) and Malda (1,801).
All these
latter districts, however, as is detailed
below, with the exception of Malda,
returned an increase in the respective
number of their revaccinations. Twenty-
two districts reported an increase in re-
vaccination operations over those of the
previous year—Burdwan (55,196), Mid-
napur (40,808), Noakhali
(36,144),
Darjeeling (35,118), Bogra (31,662 ),
Murshidabad (30,026), Tippera (28,400),
Bankura (23,422), Faridpur (22,835),
Rangpur (20,377), 24-Parganas (19,443),
Nadia (17,344), Dinajpur (15,104),
Pabna (10,035), Dacca (9,711), Chitta-
gong (9,518), Mymensingh (6,562) and
Birbhum (6,504).
Rajshahi, Howrah,
Khulna and Chittagong Hill Tracts
recorded increases below 5,000. In five
districts there was a decrease in revacci-
nations—Jessore
(2,635),
Hooghly
(1,590), Malda (841), Jalpaiguri (738)
and Bakarganj (518).
The substitution of free vaccination by
house to house visitation in most of the
districts in place of the old licensed
system, the increased activities of the
local bodies through their District Health
Officers and the vaccination staff, coupled
with the financial help by way of the
Government contribution of Rs. 25,000
found the District Boards ready to meet
the quinquennial onslaught by the anti-
cipated smallpox epidemic, which in
consequence exacted a smaller toll of lives
in the present than in the previous
quinquennium. The gradual increase in
the number of vaccinations performed
can be taken as
a fair
index
of the
rousing
of the
sanitary
conscience of the
people, who at
present are not so apathetic as they
were in former times towards availing
themselves of the help offered to them free
by those in whose hands their sanitary
welfare rests, though they still lack
generally the moral courage required to
overcome the feeling of slight incon-
venience temporarily caused by the per-
formance of vaccination on their children
and themselves; and if at this stage, the
District Boards and other local bodies
could possibly maintain a sufficient staff
of qualified vaccinators and supervisers
who would actually follow the proper
technique of performing the operation of
vaccination and thus with the help and
active co-operation of the general public,
the Union Boards, the village panchayats,
dafadars and chaukidars wherever
necessary bring about a state of affairs,
in which no one remains unprotected,
then there is no reason why smallpox
epidemics should not be things of the past.
Strict legal enforcement, in cases where
persuasion has failed, of the Vaccination
Acts which have been extended now
practically to the whole of Bengal, main-
tenance of lists of unprotected persons by
the Superintendents of Vaccination with
the help of the vaccinators, and prompt
and early notification of the first cases of
smallpox encouraged by a system of
reward are sure to prove important
factors in achieving this aim.
6. Vaccination in Municipalities. —In
Calcutta, 149,322 operations including
25,607 primary and 123,715 revaccina-
tions were performed during the year
1925-26 against 293,326 operations with
34,875 primary and 258,451 revaccina-
tions in the previous year, showing
decreases in the year under review of
144,004, 9,268 and 134,736 in the total,
primary and revaccinations respectively.
The decrease is due to the fact that a very
large number of vaccinations was per-
formed in Calcutta during the previous
year in anticipation of the quinquennial
epidemic.
The average of the present
triennial period was 159,578 operations
with 25,331 primary and 134,242 revacci-
nations against 55,737 with 16,341
primary and
39,396
revaccinations
during the previous triennium.
The
total number of operations performed in
mufassal municipalities during 1925-26
was 167,238, of which 66,276 were
primary and 100,962 revaccinations,
against a total of 148,111 including
67,629 primary and 80,482 revaccinations
in the preceding year, showing an in-
crease of 19,127 operations in the pre-
sent epoch. The average number of
operations performed during the trien-
nium was 135,695, with 65,858 primary
and
69,837 revaccinations
against
96,561, 58,899 and 37,662 respectively
during the previous one. The increase
in the present triennium was thus 39,
134 in the total including 6,959 primary
and 32,175 revaccinations.