DARJEELING CIRCLE.
33
him, and from the determined opposition arising to vaccination from the proceedings of a
gang of vaccinators kept by the rajbari, and by other ex-inoculators working on their own
account. Vaccination not being a novelty in this district, it was my wish to introduce the
arm-to-arm system; but I believe the opposition of the vaccinators to it was equal to that of
the people. It requires constant and daily attention to duty, whereas lymph dried on ivory
slips can be carried about and applied at the convenience of the vaccinator. As the native
superintendent, though in every way qualified for his duty as far as knowledge was concerned,
was found quite untrustworthy, the deputy superintendent was detailed in December to look
after the district, and only from his exertions was anything accomplished. His services, which
were often urgently required in other districts, were thus lost to me. He pushed on arm-to-
arm vaccination as much as possible. One vaccinator tried to excite mutiny in the gang
against it, so much so that out of one native superintendent and six vaccinators in November
I was obliged to discharge all but one vaccinator before the end of March.
The Rajbari gang
In the western portion of Rajarampore, which is the thana all round the town of
Dinagepore, I found that ex-inoculators had been working last year with this result, that the
people generally stated to me that "vaccination was a very bad thing, attended with severe
fever and followed by sores lasting five, six, and seven months, incapacitating the sufferers
for all agricultural labour." This story had been told in every village and at every hât in the
neighbourhood, and was the first salutation given to a vaccinator when he arrived at a village.
This has followed by permitting vaccination to be carried on by imperfectly instructed men
independent of all supervision, as I have had occasion to point out in other reports. It is now
necessary, if vaccination is not to come to a standstill in this district, that no ex-inoculator
who will not submit to supervision be permitted to practise, and that the proceedings of the
rajbari gang be at once put a stop to. It is my painful duty to bring this matter forward
again. It was my belief that the manager of the Dinagepore Ranee's estates was acting in
good faith in getting together a number of vaccinators, and failure followed their misconduct.
Since last season I have again had to correspond with the magistrate of the district on the
subject, and I thought that it had been made sufficiently plain to Baboo Khetro Mohun Sing
the necessity of supervision over his gang. I pointed out an area in which it might work,
where I could have conducted an inspection twice during last season. I was, therefore,
astonished to find that after all the correspondence and trouble I had taken to put the gang on
a useful footing, that the manager sent me the returns for all the season in April when he
must have known that my inspection for the season was over, and his vaccinators were reported
as having worked in several jurisdictions as far removed as possible from the one desired by
me. I beg, therefore, that this man's conduct be brought especially to the notice of the
Government, and that he be no longer permitted to show such grave disrespect to a public
servant as he has shown to me. The conduct of his gang of vaccinators has been attended by
serious abuses, which should authoritatively be put a stop to at once. From a petition made
to me by one of them, I am induced to believe that the rajbari has never given a rupee to one
of its vaccinators.
As long as such a state of matters is allowed to continue, it is idle to expect the
Government men, restricted as to pay and prevented taking any money from the people, to
perform their duty in a satisfactory manner.
The rajbari gang returned 6,403 successful cases out of 6,926, which, excluding those
unknown, gives a percentage of success of 92.99, which I have no doubt is absurdly untrue.
Amount of
protection afforded.
The whole of the Rajarampore thana, west of the Atrai river, has now been gone over by
the Government men. Two hundred and twenty-three villages were protected during the
season by them.
Rungpore district.
Protection
afforded
7. Rungpore.—Thana Molung, with an area of 150 square miles, and 748 persons per
square mile, was the scene chosen for the operations of the vaccinators during the cold season
of 1873-74. From an outbreak of small-pox, for the suppression of which too few apprentices
were available, the vaccinators had to be removed, so that the area was not completed.
However, 295 villages were protected, each vaccinator operating on 3,788 33 persons, a very
satisfactory number, which would have been greater if two men had not been sick for some
time, one of them so seriously that he had to retire to his home after having been given short
leave to recruit.
Thana Molung abuts along its northern boundary on Nisbetgunge, which had been
visited in previous years; the protected area is so being extended outwards from the sudder
thana, according to Dr. Brown's recommendation.
Method of working.
The method of working was very simple. The men were arranged along the north side
of the thana, and to each, allotted a certain breadth of country from east to west. He
proceeded southwards, passing by no village in the area given. Having visited Molung twice
during my tour, and travelled over the area and verified the returns in 126 villages, I could
find none which had been passed over.
Rather more than a third of the birth-rate of this great district is annually vaccinated.
Only one inoculator, old and past all work, came forward for instruction, and suitable
apprentices could not be got.
Small-pox in
Rungpore.
There was very little small-pox during the hot weather of 1873 in Rungpore.
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