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ABSTRACT OF REPORTS BY CIVIL SURGEONS.
13. Maldah.—There is no Government vaccinator attached to any dispensary in this
district. Only one vaccinator was employed in the English Bazar municipality and its
suburbs of Mukdumpore, &c., who was paid from the Municipal funds at the rate of one
anna for each successful case verified by the Civil Surgeon. He did not begin work
until the middle of December from, it is stated, various causes, the chief of which were
delay in the arrival of lymph, which was supplied by the Superintendent of Vaccination,
Darjeeling Circle (the first arrival having proved a failure), and the unwillingness of
the people generally to allow their children to be vaccinated. The virus was maintained
by arm-to-arm vaccination so long as the parents did not object to the process. When
they did, recourse was had to vaccine crusts. The Civil Surgeon, as usual, asked the
Magistrate and a few of the people of the place to assist him in his endeavours to promote
vaccination, but he could not obtain any material assistance, as the former is unable to issue
any orders, and the latter do not care to interest themselves in vaccination, which the people
know is not compulsory. The work that was done in this Municipality is shown in the
subjoined table as compared with 1879-80.
In 1880-81...
In 1879-80...
Total number vaccinated.
172
459
Average number vaccinated by
each vaccinator.
172
459
PRIMARY VACCINATIONS.
Total.
162
442
Successful.
Under one year.
16
One year and
under six.
103
No data.
Total of all ages.
119
412
Re-vaccin-
ations.
Total.
10
17
Successful.
10
17
Percentages
of success-
ful cases.
Primary.
72.5
93.2
Re-vaccination.
100.0
100.0
RELIGION OF THE VACCINATED.
Number vaccinated.
Hindus.
86
Mahomedans.
43
Christians.
...
Other races.
43
Proportion per cent. to
total vaccinated.
Hindus.
50.0
Mahomedans.
25.0
Christians.
...
Other races.
250
No data.
The figures indicate a decline in both the number of vaccinations and the percentage of
successful primary operations. Birth registers are not kept up in the English Bazar
Municipality, but the estimated births amounts to 386, which, compared with the number
of infant vaccinations, give only 4.14 as the percentage of infants vaccinated to
number born. The proportions per cent. of numbers vaccinated to populations according
to religion are for Hindus 1.13 and for Mahomedans 8.24, the percentage for the other
races being eliminated, as their population appears to have been under-estimated. The
Civil Surgeon visited 21 streets and lanes in the municipality and its suburbs, saw 162
cases, and found that 119 were successful. Most of the people object to vaccination, deferring
it under the pleas, very often false, that marriages, births, deaths, religious ceremonies,
festivals, &c., have to be attended to. The Civil Surgeon had on one occasion to speak to
a community of braziers, who have about 200 unvaccinated children among them, but he
was put off with a lot of lying excuses and the promise that they would receive vaccination
soon after the Bengali new year, which began on the 11th April. He doubts whether they
will keep to their promise. From his large experience of vaccination in Manbhoom he
states it as a fact that, though vaccination has much to contend with generally, there is
much less opposition to it in the interior of a district than at the sudder station, and he
repeats his recommendation that vaccination be made compulsory at least at the head-
quarters of districts if it cannot be made general throughout districts. From his annual
report in the Sanitary Department, it would appear that the district of Maldah has not yet
been taken in hand by the Vaccination Department, and that nothing has ever been done
in the town of old Maldah, although he several times called the attention of the municipality
to the subject, and the Magistrate had allotted Rs. 30 for the purpose of carrying on vaccin-
ation. In October, when several cases of small-pox occurred, he obtained lymph from
Darjeeling, but it was not used. One of the Municipal Commissioners consented to assist
in the matter, but afterwards said he was unable to do so. He reports that it is no longer a
secret that inoculation is openly practised in some places in the mofussil, the people knowing
that it may be carried on beyond municipal limits with impunity He also states that
though 81 deaths from small-pox occurred in the district in 1880-81, the police reports do not
show how many persons were attacked by the disease, and that there was nothing to prove
that the deaths were occasioned by inoculation, as no enquiries were made. No deaths
appear to have occurred in the English Bazar Municipality during the year.
14. Rajshahye.—The plan of vaccine operations followed this year was the same as in
1879-80, viz. that two vaccinators were employed at the Beauleah and Nattore dispensaries
from October 1880 to March 1881 at Rs. 6 and Rs. 5 respectively, the Beauleah man getting
Rs. 3 in addition for every 100 successful cases, all paid from municipal funds. These
vaccinators made house to house visitations and explained to the people the advantages of
vaccination ; and this plan, the Civil Surgeon says, worked so well that there was no need
for extraneous help to further vaccination. Lymph was obtained from the Superintendent
of Vaccination, Darjeeling Circle, and the virus was kept up by transferring it from child
to child in each quarter of the municipalities visited, after the sixth or seventh day, the