ABSTRACTS OF REPORTS BY SUPERINTENDENTS.
17
This was perhaps due to the active steps which were taken to suppress the disease as detailed
in Dr. Charles' report for the two years 1878-79 and 1879-80. This last outbreak aroused
renewed enquiry, the result of which went to show that vaccination was still backward
in Calcutta ; that a considerable number of the children born in and brought into the town
was not vaccinated ; and that about 10 per cent. of the adult population of the town were
unprotected. Inoculation appears now to be very rarely if ever practised within the area of
the town. The voluntary and domiciliary system having been found insufficient adequately
to protect the town, it was considered advisable to invoke the aid of law and render vaccin-
ation compulsory and its neglect penal. Compulsory vaccination has long been adopted by
civilized nations and communities, and in 1877 an Act, modelled upon the English Act, was
passed by the Bombay Legislature, rendering vaccination compulsory within the town of
Bombay. It was ascertained that this Act had worked smoothly and efficiently. After
careful deliberation, Act V of 1880 was passed by the Bengal Legislative Council. It
received the assent of the Lieutenant-Governor on the 12th of April and of the Governor-
General on the 17th of May, and having been published in the Calcutta Gazette of the
9th June, became thenceforward, and by virtue of that publication, law.
" The new Act throws upon parents and guardians the legal responsibility of having
their children vaccinated. It is no longer the duty of vaccinators to search for unprotected
children in their villages and houses and prevail upon them to accept protection. It is
incumbent upon all parents and guardians of children to take measures to procure vaccin-
ation for them. The Act provides that every facility is to be afforded them to that
end. The Corporation is enjoined to select public vaccine stations and make known their
position, working hours, &c. ; to entertain a sufficient establishment of public vaccinators;
and to make arrangements for the supply of lymph, inspection of results, and general
supervision. Persons preferring to obtain vaccination at their houses are permitted, on
payment of a very moderate fee (four annas), to claim the services of public vaccinators,
or get the operation done by medical practitioners. A system of notices has been devised,
by which every parent and guardian registering the birth of his child is reminded of his
duty, and a system of certificates and returns laid down by which default may be detected.
Facilities are also offered for compassing the vaccination of unprotected adults and children
without guardians, and a procedure prescribed by which legal compulsion may be brought
to bear on the negligent or recusant."
Steps taken to bring Act V (B. C.) of
1880 into operation.
4. Immediately after the promulgation of the Act V (B.C.) of 1880, rendering vaccin-
ation compulsory in the town, public vaccine stations, mostly
in hospitals, were selected so as to correspond to certain police
sections of the town and be situated in their centres. The establishment was distributed to these
stations ; the rules required by the Act to be framed were drawn up; instructions were pre-
pared and given to the vaccination staff; forms, registers, and returns were printed and
distributed; the new arrangements were proclaimed to the people by means of advertisements
and hand-bills, &c. All this took time, but by the 1st of October all the arrangements were
completed, and the stations were in full working order. As under section 13 of the Act the
Health Officer of the Port of Calcutta is required to serve a notice in the prescribed form
(Schedule D) on all unprotected persons arriving in the said Port, and to prosecute before a
Magistrate all persons committing offences under the Act, he was supplied with forms of
Schedule D. A public vaccine station was selected at Koila Ghât police-station, and subse-
quently at the Sailors' Home for seamen, and the time for the attendance of two
vaccinators at the station was fixed for Wednesday between the hours of 9 and 11 A.M.
to suit the convenience of the seamen. But, as it transpired that no seamen came to the
public vaccine station, it was abolished, and special arrangements were made for their vaccin-
ation during the hot weather and rains. In reply to an enquiry on the subject made by the
Health Officer, he was informed that the Act applies also to persons on board of foreign
vessels arriving in the Port, inasmuch as foreigners are subject to the laws of the country.
Gradual introduction of the new sys¬
tem in Calcutta.
5. The new system under the Act being diametrically opposed to the old, as has been
already shown, the Superintendent, knowing the frail hold
which vaccination had yet taken upon the people, and the
influence which custom has on them, and being desirous of not even losing that hold,
resolved to effect the change from one system to the other gradually, and with this view
directed the establishment under him, while attending regularly at the vaccine stations and
inducing as many as possible to resort to them, not to discontinue vaccinating in the bustees.
It is hoped that eventually, when the people shall have been taught to know and follow
the new system, bustee vaccination will be discontinued, and the time and labour of the
establishment thus employed economised.
Establishment and its cost.
6. The establishment consists of one Deputy Superintendent on Rs. 150, three head
vaccinators on Rs. 15 each, three first class vaccinators on
Rs. 12 each, six second class vaccinators on Rs. 10 each,
two third class vaccinators on Rs. 8 each, and one chuprassee on Rs. 7. There were
two chuprassees before, but as one was found sufficient for the Deputy Superintendent,
the other was discharged. The total cost of the establishment for the year amounted
to Rs. 3,753-10-3. No extra or emergent establishment was necessary, and consequently
not maintained. Gunga Narain Acharjee, the oldest vaccinator on the establishment, died
during the year, after 76 years' service.
E