FOR THE YEAR 1879-80.
7
population is dense enough and communication easy enough to admit of arm
to arm vaccination, and these facilities exist in places more or less throughout
the province. Dr. Charles' past reports have shown conclusively the high
degree of success which attends vaccination in the hot weather and rains in
Calcutta and its suburbs, when effort is stimulated by the presence of small-
pox, and he has shown also how completely the supposed obstacles to contin-
uous vaccination have been removed by ordinary care in operation. The
periodic recurrence of epidemics, and more particularly the season of their
commencement in Calcutta, prove the great mischief of leaving the town com-
paratively unprotected during the hot weather and rains, and though vaccin-
ation has been made compulsory here it may well be feared that it will
be deprived of much of its power for good if it be not enforced without
interruption throughout the year. There are districts whose population is so
scanty, and where travelling is so difficult, that preserved lymph is used of
necessity for transmission from place to place. This lymph does deteriorate
from heat and moisture, and may suffer so greatly as to prevent vaccination in
the hot weather and rains. Generally of Bengal districts it may be said that
communication is too difficult in the rains, and that in the hot weather inspect-
ing officers could scarcely exercise the necessary supervision. But in Calcutta
and its suburbs, and in other large, circumscribed, and populous places, it
appears to me that the head-quarters of vaccine circles should be established
in that period of the year which is now called the recess, and operations
should continue. It is evident that under such a system the organization and
efficiency of the establishment would attain a development which cannot be
expected from intermittent action.
16. Licensed operations.—The progress of vaccination by licensed operators
in the second year of the organised system will, I think, be considered satisfactory
as a whole. It is best illustrated in the Metropolitan circles. The obstacles
are the same as those reported in the previous year, that on which most stress
is laid being the difficulty of recovering fees. The increase of numbers in the
circles, however, would seem to show that no great hindrance to progress has
yet been felt from this or any other cause.
17. Attitude of the people.—The attitude of the people towards vaccination
has not differed materially in 1879 from that which has been often described.
The extravagant beliefs and prejudices with which they are inspired by those
whom superstition or self-interest may induce to mislead them continue to
influence the people in many parts of the province, and inoculators are still at
work producing disease and hindering its prevention to the utmost. These
are evils to be corrected only by time and the gradual progress to be expected
from the development of vaccination. Towards this development, I venture
to think, an important step has been taken in the transfer of the control of
the department to the Sanitary Commissioner.
18. I append very full abstracts of the reports of the several Circle
Superintendents. Each of these is a narrative of local events, to be accepted
as it stands. They afford nothing for technical criticism further than the
evidence of progress or the reverse which is set forth in the foregoing summary
tables. The report of the Superintendent-General contains an account of the
last months of the late epidemic in Calcutta, which I have reproduced in some
detail.
The figures as furnished by the Superintendents in the body of their
reports have been, as usual, accepted and used in the abstracts. These are on
the whole correct, but for purposes of reference the tables and statements
prepared in this office should be used as far as possible.
I have the honor to be,
SIR,
Your most obedient servant,
A. J. PAYNE, M.D.,
Surgeon- General for Bengal.