FOR THE YEAR 1878-79.
25
licenses. I agree with Dr. Stewart in thinking that it is very desirable to prevent inocula-
tion, but at the same time I doubt if the people of any part of Orissa are yet prepared for
this measure. They have been long used to inoculation, and vaccination has only been
tried for not quite four years, and against the latter they entertain strong prejudices. Let
them see more of vaccination, and Act IV (B.C.) of 1865 may be introduced easily and with
advantage. This is the view taken by the Commissioner and the Magistrate. I can see no
advantage in having the post of licensed vaccinators hereditary, nor why the rules that are
followed in other circles should not be equally applicable to Orissa where vaccination is
carried on in connection with Act IV of 1865. In the meantime, I have no doubt that the
Civil Surgeon and district officers could do a great deal in inducing inoculators to learn and
practise vaccination, working along with the circle vaccinators as in other circles.
Assistant Surgeon Kally Dass Bose, who was Superintendent of the Behar Circle
during the year, reports as in the following abstract. His report was received on the
28th May.
Establishment.—A Superintendent, 5 head and 30 ordinary vaccinators, 1 clerk, and
1 peon formed the establishment sanctioned by Government, but of the 5 head vaccinators
only 4 were employed, and of the 30 ordinary ones, 16 were permanently employed, while
14 were taken on temporarily on reduced pay, in order to reduce expenditure as well as to
permit of the entertainment of local ex-inoculaters in whom the people have greater con-
fidence and by whom they are more readily persuaded to take vaccination than by those of
the permanent establishment.
Work.—The vaccinators were divided in four batches—each under a head. These batches
were again split into companies of two each—one an experienced vaccinator and the other a
local ex-inoculator, through whose instrumentality the villagers were more easily persuaded.
The work was carried on in the thanas of Bikram, Monair, Dinapore, Bankipore, and
the villages around it, and in the suburban villages around Patna. The total number vacci-
nated was 11,959, against 15,444 of the previous year, showing a decrease of 3,485 of the
total number: 6,119 were males and 5,840 females: 743 were under one year in age, while
11,216 were above: 10,610 or 89.30 per cent. were Hindoos, 1,277 or 10.68 per cent. Maho-
medans, and only 2 were Christians.
In cases of primary vaccination 11,649 were successful, or 98.23 per cent., 209 unsuccess-
ful and doubtful, and 94 the results of which were unknown. In those of secondary vacci-
nation the success is put down at 14 57 per cent.
The excess in the number of Hindoos over Mahomedans is owing to the population con-
sisting chiefly of the former class.
Reasons for the decrease.—The decrease in the year's outturn of work, the Superintendent
thinks, is attributable to the following reasons :—The small number of operations on children
under one year is due to the absurd belief which the people have that vaccination and inocu-
lation are harmful to children under a certain age. This notion they embraced in conse-
quence of observing that inoculation is performed only on children old enough to bear its
effects.
Want of readiness in the people to take vaccination and the consequent loss in time
formed the chief. For, when a vaccinator enters a village, the people, retaining still the belief
of death being the result of the operation, do not come readily forward with their children,
and thus he has to argue and abide their convenience and often stay among the same group
of villages for several months together.
It is not so difficult to persuade the people who have been used to inoculation to accept
of vaccination, but with those who have not been used to it, the case is different, and these
are the people who take up so much of a vaccinator's time in trying to persuade them.
In many villages where deaths resulted from attacks of small-pox in those who a few
days previously had been vaccinated, the disease was ascribed to vaccination, and lingering
fears about the imposition of a vaccine-tax also greatly interfered with the work.
The people preferred the method of getting vaccination by means of crusts, which it is
said was not allowed in any case, arm-to-arm operation being insisted on, though the people
strenuously objected to allow their children to become vaccinfers. In the previous year a
great deal of help was received from the native local ex-inoculators, who were ordered by
Government to be taught and who had a greater influence on the people than the regular
establishment, but in the period under review their services were dispensed with.
The help also generally expected from the police was very little, they having the same
prejudices against vaccination as the people themselves. Head constable Hyder Ali of
Khojah was, however, an exception. He rendered signal service during the late outbreak of
small-pox there. The Superintendent thinks that the authorities should be urged to issue
strict orders to police officers in charge of thanas and outposts to interest themselves in
vaccination.
The result on the whole, the superintendent thinks, is not so very unsatisfactory, but
cannot bear comparison with the other circles in Bengal nor with that of Orissa. He consi-
ders that a comparison of the result of the work in this circle should not be made with those
of Bengal but those of upper India, as the Hindustanis have similar feelings and views
regarding vaccination as the Beharis who, unlike the Bengalis and Ooryas, " are less docile
pliant, and submissive, and more obstinate and refractory," being with difficulty acted upon
by means of official pressure, and to manage whom a great deal of tact and energy is always
required.