4
Owing to the illness of the Civil Surgeon of Seoni but little inspection work
was done; urgent demands on his time at head.quarters, prevented the Civil
Surgeon of Wardha from seeing as much as he desired, and my own inspection
of the work in Chanda rendered, in the opinion of the Civil Surgeon, a more
extensive inspection unnecessary. In Raipur it may almost be said that nothing
was done, the duties of the Civil Surgeon at head-quarters interfered with inspec-
tion there.
11. On the whole a fair amount of inspection has been done ; the average
number of days spent by each Civil medical officer in the interior was 35, omit-
ting Nagpur and Raipur, and they saw over 13,000 children and 400 villages in
excess of the number reported in 1878. Well laid out trips of from six to teu
days each, and embracing a period of from thirty to forty days in all, should, I
think, be ample to enable Civil Surgeons to form a fair estimate of the work of
each vaccinator; it is unnecessary to spend over two months on this duty, as
was the case in Betul, or fifty-two days as in Jubbulpore ; duties at head-quar-
ters do not admit of this without detriment. The case of the Saugor district
this year was exceptional, and a more extended inspection than 50 days would,
if it were possible, have been advisable; the Assistant Surgeon, however, did as
much as he could.
12. Saugor.—Eight reliable vaccinators selected in other districts were sent
to Saugor to fill the places of men who were dismissed in 1878 for falsification
of their returns ; a new Superintendent was also sent there, and the Assistant
Surgeon in charge of the dispensary was deputed to inspect in the room of the
Apothecary who failed to give satisfaction. The failure of vaccination in the
Saugor district in 1878-79 has been already reported. "Work commenced in
November, and the Assistant Surgeon commenced his inspections early in Feb-
ruary ; his report on the Superintendent is unfavourable ; the record of his work
is bad, and it will be necessary to reduce him to his former grade as vaccinator,
also to dismiss " one or two vaccinators who have not yet got out of the way
of falsifying their returns" as explained by the Deputy Commissioner. Only
one vaccinator showed a good out-turn of work, viz. 2,064, the work of the
remainder was less than might have been expected, but doubtless the action of
the men during the previous year was not without some influence on the people ;
the unwillingness to receive vaccination resulting hindered and hampered the
new men and delayed the work ; real opposition, the Deputy Commisssioner
states, comes from Brahmin and from well-to-do people only; and Major
"Ward states that he has seen a good deal of the vaccination during the year.
The poor simply dislike vaccination or are indifferent. The total out-turn of
work per vaccinator thus stands at 1,456 only, the percentage of success as
ascertained by the Assistant Surgeon on inspection is given at 88 or 6 per cent
less than that returned by the vaccinators. Four men in this district are paid
from local funds, the total cost comes to one anna and eleven pies per successful
case. The Civil Surgeon states that he was unable to commence work until the
15th of November owing to the Nagpur supply of lymph failing; but the climate
of Saugor is much more favourable for keeping up a continuous supply than
Nagpur, and Civil Surgeons have frequently been asked to keep up their own
supplies, and told that no special arrangements exist at Nagpur for supplying
them. In this case a fortnight of the working season was lost owing to disre-
gard of oft repeated instructions. One Hospital Assistant has shown a very bad
out-turn of dispensary vaccination, the remainder have done better.
13. Damoh.—In this district the Civil Surgeon kept up his supply, and
was able to send out his men directly the season opened ; indeed all were at
their posts before November had commenced ; four men have done excellent
work, two men have not done as well, the average, however, is fair. Doctor Skip-
ton reports that the work was good, and that all registers and village forms
checked were found correct, indeed he remarks that each vaccinator showed a
desire to have his work more thoroughly tested than the time at the Civil Sur-
geon's disposal admitted ; the Deputy Commissioner reports that the people are
much more favourably inclined to vaccination than formerly. The Native Su-
perintendent lost one month owing to a severe attack of pleurisy which limited