No. 1235V.
FROM SURGEON-MAJOR R. LIDDERDALE, M.D.,
Sanitary Commissioner for Bengal,
To THE SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF BENGAL,
MEDICAL AND MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENT (MEDICAL).
Dated Calcutta, the 30th July 1881.
SIR,
I HAVE the honor to submit my report on vaccination in Bengal
for the year 1880-81. It consists of a general summary of the transactions of
the year, and of very full abstracts of the circle vaccination reports furnished
by the eight Superintendents of Vaccination, and of the dispensary and
municipal vaccination reports submitted by the District Medical Officers; the
whole supplemented by facts gathered from the sanitary reports of the
Civil Surgeons for 1880 and my own remarks on points of interest deserving
the attention of Government.
Dispensary vaccinations to be desig-
nated municipal vaccinations.
2. I should note that the vaccinations that hitherto went by the
name of dispensary vaccinations should now be
denominated municipal vaccinations, as the great
majority of the results refer to the municipalities, 91 in number, the small
remainder being represented by only 24 dispensaries. The Government
is aware of the cause of this change, viz. the abolition of paid vaccinators
from 1878-79 and the transfer of the sudder dispensaries to municipalities.
Some operations coming under this head were also performed in some of the
thanas in the districts of Chittagong and Noakholli, where the Government
circle system of vaccination is not in operation, and a few in the Nuddea
Rajah's and Angool Government Estates.
Change of population.
3. In making the calculations the revised populations used in the sanitary
branch of this office have been adopted, instead
of, as hitherto, the census populations of 1872, as
the latter are at present incorrect owing to many changes in revision of
areas by the alteration of thana and village boundaries and re-estimates of
population having taken place since 1872. With these prefatory remarks,
I proceed to record the transactions of the year.
Control of Vaccination Department
transferred to Sanitary Commissioner.
4. In the orders No. 150, dated the 15th March 1880, referring to
the reorganization of the Indian Medical Service
carried out by the Government of India with
the sanction of Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India, it was directed
that the supervision of the Vaccination Department should form an impor-
tant part of the duties of the Sanitary Commissioner ; that the separate
appointment of the duties of the Superintendent-General of Vaccination
should be abolished; and that the Superintendents of Vaccination should
become Deputy Sanitary Commissioners under the orders of the Sanitary
Commissioner, who is to utilize not only them, but the whole vaccination staff
and the Civil Surgeons, as far as possible, in sanitary work. The above orders
were conveyed to this office in Government of Bengal endorsement (Medical
and Municipal Department—Medical) No. 268 of the 6th April 1880, and in
fulfilment thereof, I took over charge of the Vaccination Department from the
Surgeon-General on the 3rd May 1880.
Vaccination in Calcutta transferred
to Calcutta Municipality, and of
the Suburbs of Calcutta to Superinten-
dent of Vaccination, Metropolitan
Circles.
5. Subsequently, in orders No. 254T, dated 25th May 1880, it was
directed that the duties hitherto performed by the
Superintendent-General of Vaccination should be
made over with regard to Calcutta to the Municipal
Corporation of Calcutta, and to the Suburbs of
Calcutta to the Superintendent of Vaccination, Metropolitan Circles. These
orders were given effect to on the 1st of June.