3
Narsinghpur and 7 in Raipur during the working season, whilst in adjoining
districts only one or two are entertained. These men are employed to collect
children for operation, but the district where the largest number is employed
has shown the poorest results, and as the advantages which were anticipated to
result from their employment have not been attained, I propose to reduce the
number during the next working season to that allowed for other districts.
10. The amount paid in travelling allowance is less by Rs. 1,051, than
during the previous year ; this must not be accepted as indicating lessened
expenditure under this head. Some officers are in the habit of delaying the sub-
mission of their bills until they accumulate and then submitting all at once.
This renders it impossible to exhibit the exact amount, spent each season. I pro-
pose to remedy this by directing their submission regularly as they become due.
Travelling allowance is estimated according to the requirements of districts, and
in future shall be confined strictly to those requirements.
11. Contingencies do not form a heavy item ; they are on account of sta-
tionery and small sums paid to mothers who take their children to distant villages
with a view to lymph being secured. I have discouraged this, as with good
management the people need not be taken long distances, nor need they be kept
more than a few hours from their homes ; considering the advantages they receive
themselves gratis the cases are rare where the remuneration becomes necessary,
indeed it is confined to a few districts.
12. The cost of each successful case including dispensary vaccination was
exactly the same as during the previous year, two annas. The Nagpur district
has returned the highest cost per case, viz. three annas and one pie. To a more
expensive establishment and smaller out-turn of work this is due ; whilst with the
exception of Sambalpur, where the circumstances are exceptional, the Chanda
district expenditure is the lowest, viz. one anna and two pies each successful
case.
13. No changes have been made in supervision, which remains in, my hands
as Superintendent, whilst Civil Surgeons supervise the district work. A special
Native Superintendent inspects the work in the Nagpur district. The assistant
to the officer in civil medical charge at Saugor inspects operations there, and the
A ssistant Surgeon attached to the Jubbulpore hospital inspected the work in that
district last season. No inconvenience arose owing to the Assistant Surgeon's
short temporary absence from head-quarters, and Dr. Browne has reported that
he " made his inspections in a careful and searching manner." I shall now com-
ment on the work done in each district.
14. Saugor.—A serious falling off has taken place in the out-turn of work
in this district: vaccinators operated on 1,212 persons on an average only, against
1,636 during the previous season. This is not explained by the officer in civil
medical charge; indeed Dr. Bateman has reported that there has been an increase,
probably due to some error in calculation ; 12 men are employed in this district.
Four men employed in the interior performed less than 1,100 operations each.
As promotion to higher grades is made contingent not only on length of service
but on an out-turn of work good in quality and quantity reduction to a lower
grade should follow gross instances of' the reverse, and this will be considered
when each man's work is being scrutinized with a view to his promotion. One
of the best men in the district did little work owing to illness, and his successor
being a new man did less.
Owing to the illness of the Assistant to the Civil Surgeon little inspection
work was done; only 5 out of 12 circles were visited, and 1,315 children only
were inspected.
The Native Superintendent spent nearly the entire season in camp, but the
number of children seen by him is only 3,742. This Superintendent's work was
unfavourably criticised in the report during the previous two years. He saw
during the past season only three villages a day on an average, and about 750
children per month. In the absence of illness this must be 'regarded as bad