ABSTRACT OF REPORTS BY CIVIL SURGEONS.
77
his household or his people to be vaccinated, and at the village of Italia the people were
not willing to submit to the measure, although small-pox was prevailing in the village. But
Mr. Lyons says that on the whole there is no doubt that a regard for vaccination is steadily
growing in the district, and as a proof of this he mentions that he knows of 12 persons, a
native doctor, a compounder, five ex-inoculators, and the rest said to have been taught to
vaccinate by the above men or by the circle vaccinators, who had been at work in the district
during this season, and had earned apparently a good income by their practice. Again,
on several occasions children were brought to him for vaccination from long distances; for
instance, from Ramgunge, in the north of the district; from Doodmukha, a village 14 miles
from the sudder station; and from Ashirdija, a village in the north-eastern part of the
Sudharam thana. The men stated above to have practised on their own account were
at work principally in Chagulnya, Rajapore, Bamni, Bhoolooah, Ferashgunge, Raipore,
Begumgunge, Seabag, and Sudharam thana. They either asked for lymph or obtained
it surreptitiously. Those to whom lymph was supplied were asked to submit returns of
their work, but only two of them did so, viz. one vaccinator at Bamni, who submitted
a register of 137 successful operations, and another at Chagulnya, who applied for remu-
neration for 1,035 successful cases. It is, however, believed that a large number of
operations were performed by these private vaccinators—more than has ever yet been done.
Their work is not included in the foregoing statement, but some of the operations performed
by one of them was examined by Mr. Lyons and found to be satisfactory. It is, however,
difficult to obtain returns from them, or to inspect their work, on account of the labour and
inconvenience it would entail without remuneration. Inoculation is said to be carried on to a
considerable extent in the district. Mr. Lyons says that unless some inducement is offered to
the inoculators, or pressure put upon them, either officially or indirectly, as by the growth of
vaccination, there is little hope of making them abandon inoculation. But progress, he submits,
in vaccination is difficult, as there is not a single public vaccinator available, and the subscrip-
tions for private vaccinators are always small and inadequate, and can only be expected at
times of emergency, and he therefore again urges that this district be brought under the
Vaccination Department, particularly thanas Ramgunge and Luckhipore, which are nearest to
Dacca, the head-quarters of the vaccination circle, and that the Act prohibiting inoculation be
extended to the Noakholli municipality. Proposals concerning the Chittagong Division have
been already submitted to Government from this office. Small-pox is reported to have
been more prevalent in the district during the year under review than in any of the previous
six years, particularly in thanas Fenny, Begumgunge, and Lukhipore, where it was most
fatal. In the Sanitary Report of the year 1880 it is stated that the disease prevailed, as
usual, mostly from March to July. At this time the vaccination season has terminated,
and it is also the time when the people most object to vaccination, even to inoculation, on
the ground (among other usual excuses referring to religious prejudices, incurring the
displeasure of neighbours, &c.) that the heat is too great; and as vaccination cannot
be compulsorily enforced, measures taken to afford protection are to a great extent
inoperative in thanas near the station, and completely in distant ones. This happened in
Lukhipore thana, where the disease was prevailing in July, and where the vaccinator
deputed to do the work failed to vaccinate a single person. In this thana in particular
vaccination has always been very backward and the people very averse to it, and it is in
this thana where small-pox has occurred mostly during the past four years. In Sundeep
and Hattia vaccination has not been in operation for years, and yet it is remarkable that
but few deaths have occurred in them—viz. 32 in Sundeep and 10 in Hattia from 1875 to
1880. This is ascribed in great part to their isolated situation, and to the absence in
them of a large floating population. No case of death resulting from inoculation was
met with, but in every instance in which Mr. Lyons made personal enquiries into the
matter on the spot, he found inoculation had been resorted to after small-pox had made
its appearance in the village or neighbourhood. No case could be traced to importation.
Generally, the places where the disease prevailed with severity were filthy in the extreme,
and the water-supply was impure. The total number of casualties from small-pox in the
district during the year amounted to 1,132, or at the rate of 1.34 per 1,000 of population,
showing that protection is much needed.
PATNA DIVISION.
30. Patna City Dispensary.—Six vaccinators were attached to this dispensary from
November 1880 to January 1881, five in February and four in March. One of them, who is
the head vaccinator, was allowed Rs. 10 per mensem throughout the working season, from
November 1880 to March 1881, and Rs. 8 during recess. The rest received Rs. 7 and Rs. 5
during the periods they worked. The whole expenditure was met by the Patna Municipality.
The vaccinators were divided into two batches, and to each were assigned separate areas, viz.
to one batch the outposts of Khaja Kalan and Chowk Kalan, and to the other the outposts of
Malsalami and Bagh Jafer Khan. They took up mohulla by mohulla in their respective
jurisdictions, vaccinating those who volunteered to submit to the operations Consequently
the whole of the areas in which they worked could not be completely protected. In addition
to the above vaccinators, nine ex-inoculators were licensed to work in the municipality. They
. were also divided into two batches, and worked in the same areas as the vaccinators—in fact
conjointly with them by whom their work was inspected. The lymph used was that which
u