11
37. Bilaspur.—Work was commenced early in November; four vaccinators
were employed, but the amount of work done was small. 3,287 children belong-
ing to 93 villages were vaccinated, and the proportion of successful cases was 89
per cent.
Mr. Ferdinands, the Civil Medical Officer, inspected the work in 37 villages
and vouches for the correctness of the reports.
38. Damoh.—Vaccination in this district, always very small, was in the
year under review almost nothing. 407 operations only were performed, and of
these only 263 or 53 per cent were successful. This want of progress in vaccina-
tion is the more to be regretted, as the district is now threatened with an epide-
mic visitation of small-pox, and in former epidemics the disease has been extreme-
ly fatal in Damoh.
39. From this short review of the vaccination work done by the local
Establishments, it will appear that in many districts considerable progress has
been made, and the prejudices of the people in a great measure overcome. In
other districts little has been done, and the cause almost invariably alleged being
the prejudices of the people against the operation and the want of countenance
and support from the Civil authorities, that in all cases this is merely the excuse
of idle vaccinators, is not probable ; that men in the position and receiving the
small pay of vaccinators will be idle if not closely looked after, is quite certain,
but it is equally certain that without assistance men in their position cannot meet
the opposition of the people. This report, however, gives abundant evidence that
when the Civil Surgeon, working in concert with the other District Officers, cordi-
ally takes up the duty of superintending vaccination, the opposition of the people
vanishes in a very remarkable degree.
40. It would not perhaps be quite fair to take Table III, where the districts
are arranged according to the amount of protection conferred on the people, as
a measure of the interest taken in the work by the District authorities, for the
funds available for the work are not the same in all; but it must I think be al-
lowed that those districts which are high in the list are not always those in which
the obstacles in the way of supervision are least.,
41. The total number of Primary operations in the year by Local and
Municipal Establishments was 89,734 against 77,074 in the previous year,—an
increase of 17 per cent.
The percentage of successful cases was 87.8, against 87 6 in 1872-73.
42. Re- Vaccination.—1,837 cases are returned, but judging by the large
amount of success, the 573 returned from Sambalpur were probably children, in-
fants vaccinated a second time after failure. In Jabalpur a large number of con-
victs and candidates for the public service were re-vaccinated, with a successful
percentage of 61.2.
43. The total sum expended from Local and Municipal funds on vaccina-
tion amounted to Rs. 7,336, and the average cost of each successful case was 1-4.
The average monthly pay received by each Vaccinator was a little less than Rs. 8.
44. The following table exhibits the results of vaccination in the Central
Provinces for 1873-74, compared with the results obtained in other Provinces in
the previous year : —