80
ABSTRACT OF REPORTS BY CIVIL SURGEONS.
municipality, one of the vaccinators even being sent to the interior of the sub-division.
This accounts for the number of vaccinations being smaller in the year under review. The
success that attended the operations, although better as compared with the preceding year,
is yet very unsatisfactory. In this town 1,943 births, or at the rate of 43.86 per 1,000
of population, were recorded. The infants vaccinated placed against this figure give only
3.49 as the percentage of infant vaccination to number born. Of the Hindu population .63
per cent. were vaccinated, and of the Mahomedan 1.08 per cent. The Assistant Surgeon
inspected 114 of the operations in the town and found that 68 were successful. He also saw 179
vaccinations among the dispensary patients, but the report does not show how many of these
were successful, probably from want of opportunity being afforded to the Assistant Surgeon to
verify them. The offer of Government to reward private vaccinators at two annas for each
successful case of. vaccination has not yet produced any good in Behar. Almost all the
people are said to be in favour of inoculation, as they hold to the belief that vaccination
is not a sufficient protection against small-pox, owing to their having met many cases of
the disease, which they will go on observing as long as crusts alone are used for the
transmission of lymph in vaccinated individuals. Inoculation is largely practised in the
sub-division, and surreptitiously in the town, where only the prohibitory law is in force.
The Assistant Surgeon says that the action of the municipality in prohibiting the muni-
cipal vaccinator to work outside municipal limits has contributed to a certain extent to
the prevalence of the practice of inoculation, which he thinks is likely to extend, and with
it the greater prevalence of small-pox, if the Government will not adopt measures to
remedy the matter. He also states that several cases were heard of in which small-pox
appeared in vaccinated persons three or four of whom were known to have been successfully
vaccinated. Forty-one deaths, or at the rate of .92 per 1,000 of population, were reported
to have occurred in this town during the year. The vaccination practised in Behar is
evidently very bad in quality
34. Dinapore.—Owing to want of funds the. services of the vaccinators who. had been
attached to the dispensary for the past few years were dispensed with, and the vaccination
of the sub-division and cantonments of Dinapore was left to be done by the Behar
Vaccination Circle, which department carried out the work of this year. No opposition to
vaccination, it is said, is met with in the neighbourhood of the cantonments.
35. Gya.—There were eight vaccinators employed, viz. two at Gya, one at Aurungabad,
one at Daoodnuggar, one at Takari, one at Sherghotti and one at Jehanabad, from 15th
October 1880 to 15th April 1881, and one at Nawada from April 1880 to March 1881.
The whole of these vaccinators were paid by the municipalities to which they were respect-
ivly attached. They worked under the direct supervision of the sub-divisional Civil Hospital
Assistants, except that the work of the Gya man was supervised by the Civil Surgeon
At the beginning of the season lymph was obtained from Darjeeling, Ranchi and. this office,
and kept up as much as possible by-arm to-arm vaccination. The lymph failed in the
great majority of the cases to produce the desired results.
The work of the year is shown below :—
In 1880-81...
In 1879-80...
Total number vaccinated.
1,393
1,654
Average number vaccinated by
each vaccinator.
174
275
PRIMARY VACCINATIONS.
Total.
1,383
1,654
Successful.
Under one year.
303
One year
and
under six.
711
No
data
Total of all ages.
1,180
1,414
Re-vaccin-
ations.
Total.
10
...
Successful.
5
...
Percentages
of sucess-
ful cases.
Primary.
85.3
85.5
Re-vaccination.
50.0
...
RELIGION OF THE VACCINATED.
Number vaccinated.
Hindus.
1,175
Mahomedans.
209
Christians.
8
Other races.
1
Proportion per cent. to
total vaccinated.
Hindus.
84.3
Mahomedans.
15.0
Christians.
.60
Other races.
.07
No data.
There was a decrease in the number of vaccinations, and the character of the operations
was as unsatisfactory as in the preceding year. Births are registered in only the Gya town,
where 1,156 births were recorded this year. But the estimated births in the entire area under
operation amounts to 3,142, and the percentage of infant vaccinations on this number comes
to only 9.64. The vaccinations according to religion show that 1.52 per cent. of the Hindu
population, .76 per cent. of the Mahomedan, 5.12 of the Christian, and 6.25 of other races, were
operated on. The Civil Surgeon could only visit the sub-divisional head-quarters for the
inspection of cases. He says that the result on the whole was satisfactory, but that in a few
instances cases were not carefully recorded in the registers. There is no inspecting vaccinator.
and Dr. Macleod repeats that it is useless to employ ex-inoculators (many of the present
vaccinators were inoculators before) unless their work can be closely superintended, as they
invariably resort to the old practice unless looked after. The people are extremely averse to
vaccination, and inoculation is universally practised in the district. The Civil Surgeon is of
opinion that vaccination will not for a long time to come make much progress unless
it is made compulsory, and he advocates the introduction of the Compulsory Vaccination