2
ing on their work. Even below the ghats, where a good deal of tacit opposi-
tion was shown in former years, much of it has now given way, and the majority
of the people brought up their children very readily. One of the greatest ob-
jections I have had to contend against, was the fear of the operation cutting some
supposed formidable " rug " or vein in the arm, by which the child was sure to
die ; but the operation as now performed is so slight and all but painless, that
it was easy to show the mothers on their own arms how little pain the children
actually suffered, and their fears in this respect were soon quieted.
Another objection, and perhaps it is a more general one, is that the parents
fear to show a too ready belief in vaccination, thinking that if they do, their ready
acceptance of the prophylactic may only be another excuse for an extra turn of
the financial screw. This I have heard frequently from the villagers themselves.
There are very few parts of the district which I have not now visited, and
the people have brought up their children willingly for inspection, their mothers
invariably accompanying them, and it is gratifying to be able to say that whatever
fears they might have had before of the operation, or of its inefficacy to prevent
small-pox, very little now exists and in hundreds of villages where vaccination
has been carried on continuously for years, small-pox has not been heard off.
The advantages of arm to arm vaccination as compared with the other and
more convenient methods were constantly pointed out to the people in my camp,
and I have reason to hope that year by year it will become more and more in
favour, as ensuring better and more permanent results, and practically giving the
parents less trouble than that of vaccinating from lymph in tubes or glasses, or
using crusts, for in all these methods the percentage of successful cases can never
be so high, nor what is of greater importance, is the work so good, for it is easy
to understand that in arm to arm vaccination the lymph has no time to lose its
vitality, but is transferred in a so-to-speak " living" state, and is at once taken up
by the circulation. In the other methods, even under the most careful supervi-
sion, there frequently results a local pustule instead of a typical vaccine vesicle,
having perhaps some of the physical appearances of a true vaccine vesicle, and
consequently noted as a successful vaccination. In a year or two, or longer still,
such children may be attacked with small-pox, and thus disbelief in vaccination
is at once inculcated, and perhaps it is partly to this cause that the general pre-
valence of small-pox now in some parts of the Province is due.
I have pointed out these facts to the Vaccinators under my orders, and have
frequently impressed upon them that their reputation as Vaccinators must always
depend on the permanency of their work and not merely on numbers.
The work in some of the circles having been completed before the close of
the season, three Vaccinators were sent to the Jaghirdars of Hurrai, Sonpur
and Partabgarh, who were requested by the Deputy Commissioner to give them all
necessary assistance, and they were thus enabled to operate on 2,480 persons with
successful results in 2,387. These were all vaccinated arm to arm, and fresh lymph
first obtained from the Umret and Amarwara circles, which border the Jaghirs.
In Harrai last year, of 1,115 operations, 952 were on children over 1
year of age, and only 163 on children under 1 year. This year of 262 children,
196 were under 1 year, and only 66 above 1 year. At Sonpur and Partabgarh
the same results are noticeable this year as were noticed last year in Hurrai,
viz the great preponderance of children over I year to those under 1 year. Thus
of 2,218 cases in Sonpur and Partabgarh, no less than 1,958 were in children
over 1 year, many of these being from 12 to 16 years old who had escaped
small-pox or at least showed no marks of the disease.