5
Ratnagherry from being a part of the Southern Circle, but even with this reduction it will be
almost impossible, considering the number of vaccinators employed by the Jagheerdars, as
well as those of the Municipalities, in addition to the Government establishment, that they can
be all visited within the seven or eight months which embrace the period of the annual tour of
inspection.
On the quality of the lymph in use during the year, I can on the whole report favourably,
with the exception of North Canara. During the past year my opportunities of inspecting the
lymph have been greater than in any preceding one, as in addition to examining the work
of those vaccinators under my charge. I felt it was hardly going beyond my duty
if I examined also the lymph in use at the various dispensaries under the charge of Hospital
Assistants scattered throughout my Circle; I have therefore visited and inspected the vaccine
operations at all the Dispensaries which have laid in my route when moving from station to
station: of these I should mention the Hooblee Dispensary as being distinguished for its
excellent quality. From it I have had lymph supplied to several vaccinators in the Dharwar
and Canara zillahs. I have also lately examined the lymph at the Kolapoor Civil Hospital
under the charge of the Sub-Assistant Surgeon Mr. Wamon Wassoodew, and am glad to be
able to report that it has in no way diminished from the high standard it so long maintained
under Mr. Mills. The lymph round Belgaum has throughout the year been excellent, I
have had frequent opportunities of inspecting it. The vaccinator employed there, Chimmo-
jee Siddojee, the senior member of this establishment, deserves much credit for the manner
he has so steadily maintained it. He has thoroughly mastered the difficulties of charging the
capillary tubes with liquid lymph, and lymph so preserved has been forwarded by him to
Bombay, the Civil Surgeons of Rutnagherry, Sattara, and Karwar, to the Vingorla station, to
several Dispensaries, and to many members of the vaccine establishment. From the majority
the reports of the lymph so preserved have been satisfactory. It is almost needless to
mention the great importance of having a source of lymph always ready and of a quality to be
depended on. On all occasions when a successive supply of lymph has been required by
medical officers at out-stations the transmission of it has been left in the hands of Chimmojee
Siddojee.
During the past year only one instance of active prejudice against vaccination has been
brought to my notice, and that was in the Uthnee talooka in the Belgaum zillah. In the
month of April or May last I received from Major Thomas, Superintendent of Police, Belgaum,
a report of an outbreak of small-pox in that talooka, I immediately directed a vaccinator
to proceed there. His Returns for the following three months were singularly small for a
district in which small-pox was said to be present, the rule being that under the immediate
influence of the fear of small-pox, the most apathetic are. then disposed to take advantage of
the protection offered them, leading of course to more than ordinary large Returns of opera-
tions. In the third month the vaccinator showed only eight operations in his Returns. I
could hardly help believing that this very small Return was owing as much to the conduct of
the vaccinator, or probably to his having absented himself from duty, as from any prejudice
oil the part of the people, and I withheld his pay pending an inquiry being made by the
Mamlutdar of the district, under the direction of Mr. Naylor, the Assistant Magistrate in
charge, to whom I reported the case. The result of this inquiry was thoroughly to exonerate the
vaccinator from any blame, and a number of certificates were forwarded to me signed by the
Patels of villages to the effect that none of the inhabitants were disposed to submit their
children to vaccination; upon this I immediately moved the vaccinator to other districts