RESOLUTION.
MEDICAL.
Calcutta, the 10th December 1879.
READ—
The report, by the Surgeon-General for Bengal, on vaccination during the year
1878-79.
Read again—
The report for 1877-78 and the orders of Government thereon.
THE total number of persons vaccinated and re-vaccinated in the year
1878-79 was 1,315,884, against 1,285,301 in 1877-78, 1,509,910 in 1876-77, and
1,086,373 in 1875-76. The results of the past year, compared with those of
1877-78, show an increase in the out-turn of work every where, except in the
Metropolitan, Orissa, and Behar circles, and in the number of vaccinations per-
formed by dispensary and municipal vaccinators and by ex-inoculators working
under civil surgeons. The total increase in the Calcutta, Darjeeling,
Ranchee, Sonthal Pergunnahs, and Eastern Bengal circles was 181,401 cases,
and the total decrease in the remaining circles and in dispensary vaccinations
150,818 cases. Out of the total number of operations performed in 1878-79,
40,134 were re-vaccinations. Of these, 38,003 were performed in the Calcutta
circle, and only 456 in the remaining circles, while 1,675 were performed by
vaccinators in dispensaries and municipalities and elsewhere.
2. In the Calcutta circle, where 9,970 more vaccinations were effected
than in 1877-78, the increase was due to the special measures adopted
during the past year for the protection of the people from the epidemic of
small-pox which prevailed in the town. The establishment attached to this
circle was temporarily increased by the transfer from the Metropolitan circle
of three Deputy Superintendents, three head-vaccinators, and 20 vaccinators,
who worked in the town from the 23rd May to the 27th July 1878. Subse-
quently, one extra vaccinator was employed in August, four in February, and
two in March. In the Metropolitan circle, the number of operations performed
during the past year was less than in any of the preceding four years. Com-
pared with 1877-78, there was a decrease of 63,571 cases, attributed to sickness
among both the people and the vaccinators, and to the difficulties attending
the experimental introduction for the first time throughout the circle of the
self-supporting system of vaccination. In the Orissa circle a good deal of
time was lost in starting vaccination, owing to the failure of several supplies of
lymph received from Calcutta; and the work was further retarded by sickness
among the vaccinators. The decrease in the Behar circle is attributed to the
difficulty experienced in inducing the people, especially those who had not
been used to inoculation, to bring forward their children, to the opposition to
arm-to-arm vaccination, and to the want of co-operation from the police. The
reports of the Superintendents show that, even in the circles in which there was
an increase, formidable obstacles had to be overcome, and that the establish-
ment was often much crippled by sickness. In one part of the Rungpore
district, a report was spread that vaccine scars were the marks put upon
children, two boat-loads of whom were to be sacrificed at the site of a proposed
railway bridge over the Teesta, and that the Superintendent would come
round afterwards to select suitable victims. In Singbhoom some of the
zemindars wanted 25 per cent. of the fees, and, as there were no fees charged,
they opposed the vaccinators, one of the zemindars going so far as to punish
his ryots for being vaccinated. The people of Sarunda in the same district
first asked for a Brahmin vaccinator, and when one was given to them, they
refused his services. In the Ranchee circle a story was circulated that the goddess
of railway engines was angry and that blood from the arms of children was
required to propitiate the deity, and that when the engines moved the
children would die. The decrease in the number of dispensary vaccinations
in 1878-79, as compared with the previous year, was due to the services of