2
The figures quoted are illustrative of the general nature of the errors now
disclosed, and exhibit a degree of carelessness in dealing with statistics far from
creditable to the officers concerned.
4. All the statistics now submitted may be fairly accurate, but after proof
of such serious error in the previous year's returns, the Chief Commissioner
hesitates to place implicit reliance on the statistics now furnished. Taking the
figures as they stand there seem to have been 33,751 more primary operations
performed by vaccinators, and 605 more re-vaccinations, confined in the main to
the Chhindwara district. The vaccinators as a body did more work, and
returned as successful 96 per cent, which was reduced by Civil Surgeons and
Superintendents to 90 per cent. The cost of each successful case was 2-1¾ pies
compared with 2-6¼ pie in the previous year. The total cost of operations
amounted to Rs. 34,575-8-3, distributed as follows:—from Provincial funds
Rs. 33,562-2-11, from Local funds Rs. 641-12-10, and from Municipalities
Rs. 371-8-6.
5. You regard the general results of the season's work as having been
fairly good, but note that better results may be expected next season. The
character of the work, and the amount performed, is greatly dependent on
the zeal and efficiency of the Superintendents employed, and on the nature
of the supervision exercised by Civil Surgeons. If the supervision is close,
and, when local inspections are made, if those are of a thorough kind, the
out-turn of work cannot but be satisfactory. It seems doubtful from the
remarks in the report whether all the inspections undertaken during the year
were of a thorough kind, but in a matter like vaccination it is difficult to
judge what number of villages admit of being properly looked over in a day.
You note that " a searching and crucially testing inquiry confined to a com-
" paratively few villages in each circle " would probably be sufficient to secure
really good work, and it is certain that a few days well spent in each vaccinator's
circle ought to be sufficient to enable a Civil Surgeon to form a correct opinion
on the manner in which vaccination has been carried out. No object is gained
by attempting to get through as many villages as possible in a fixed number of
days, and the preferable procedure clearly is to devote the number of days
available to examining closely as much of the work as admits of careful scrutiny
within the time. There is great variation apparent in the proportion
of vaccinated children examined by Civil Surgeons. In the Mandla and
Sambalpur districts more than half the cases vaccinated seem to have been
examined. In Raipur only 210 children were examined by the Civil Surgeon
out of 17,414 vaccinated in the district. In the former instances it may be that
much of the examination was of a cursory kind, in the latter it is clear there
was no real scrutiny over the work of the vaccinators. In Seoni, Wardha,
Bhandara and Chanda also the proportion of cases inspected by Civil Surgeons is
small. The report refers to a practice in the Chhindwara district of collecting
the children vaccinated at central points for inspection. This may be a conve-
nience to the Medical officer, but it is open to abuse, and calculated to make
vaccination unpopular. The Chief Commissioner requests therefore that the prac-
tice may be everywhere discontinued.
6. There is as marked variation in the amount of work which Civil Sur-
geons succeeded in getting out of their subordinates as has already been remarked
- on as characteristic of the work done by themselves. Nine vaccinators in
Chanda did more work than 18 vaccinators employed in Raipur, while in the
adjoining district of Sambalpur 5 vaccinators got through more vaccination than
7 and 8 employed in other districts. In Mandla, Chhindwara, Seoni, Chanda
and Sambalpur the average number of persons vaccinated by each vaccinator
exceeded two thousand, reaching in the case of Sambalpur as high as 2,787. In
Raipur the average for each vaccinator was only 949 cases vaccinated, being the
lowest number of any district in the Province, and followed by Nagpur which
has only an average of 1,394 cases. Vaccine operations are doubtless affected
by the general attitude of the people, but Dr. Barter reports not having met any
where with active opposition or hostility, and it is feared that in Raipur, Nag-
pur and other districts the poor results are due to weak supervision, deserving