20
Age.
ble more generally to vaccinate infants. This point has been more than once during
the year brought to the notice of the vaccinators, who
state that the mass of the people have an insuperable
objection to submit very young children. I have paid considerable attention to
this subject, on my tour, and have endeavoured to procure, on my visit to villages,
young children for operations whenever there was fresh lymph, but the people as
a rule certainly do object.
Sex caste.
13. The proportion of males to females taking the grand total of the persons
primarily vaccinated is 52.2 to 47.8. The percentages
of castes is Christian .6, Hindus 87.1, Musalman 7.2,
Parsis none and other castes 4.9.
Lymph.
14. The lymph in use during the year has been generally reported good,
and that I have inspected on tour, with few excep-
tions, has been satisfactory.
Some of the men have
occasionally lost their lymph, which, has cost much trouble and inconvenience
in its renewal, more so especially as no tubes have been forthcoming for some
months, the supply in Bombay having become exhausted. Fresh lymph has been
received from England through the Superintendent General and spread through
some talukas, but it has not been so generally for want of tubes. Lymph has
also been supplied to civil surgeons, dispensary officers and others.
Small-pox.
15. Small-pox has been more or less prevalent throughout the circle, espe-
cially in some parts of the Kanada collectorate, in
the Karwar and Bhatkal talukas where the assistant
superintendent was engaged for some months in 1873 endeavouring to stop its
ravages, but the people were very reluctant to have their children vaccinated.
In
some cases assigning as a reason the prevalence of small-pox, in others the
reverse, which can only be regarded as frivolous excuses for avoiding the opera-
tion altogether. The Bhatkal and Karwar taluka vaccinators have both how-
ever been dismissed during the year for inefficiency.
At Karwar small-pox has
been prevalent almost every month throughout the year; its prevalence there has
been attributed by the civil surgeon to the proximity of Goa, whence the disease
is introducted by the Goanese coolies who are mostly unvaccinated. The type
of disease has been a fatal one and it has, no doubt, in Karwar and the surround-
ing villages found a fertile field. There seems to have been some misunderstand-
ing as to whom these villages belong, i.e., the taluka vaccinator or the dispen-
sary officer who is also a municipal officer, specially paid for vaccinating in the
municipal villages, but he has taken charge of these villages without really being
able to attend to them as they ought to be attended to, as far as vaccination is
concerned. A separate municipal vaccinator will shortly be appointed so that,
such a state of affairs will not rccur, and in the meantime the taluka vaccinator is
working in these villages, which I personally visited and had the promise of hearty
co-operation on the part of the village officers henceforth, whom I particularly im-
pressed with the nccessity of not allowing a single person to remain unvac¬
ciuated. This has had already an excellent effect, due more probably to the
active assistance of the collector and Mr. Ingle than to any efforts of mine. In the
Bankapur taluka I found small-pox prevalent in a village on my visit, no report
of which had been made to the mamledar by the village officer. I had lymph
with me and vaccinated several children and subsequently sent the vaccinator to
the village.
Assistant superintendents.
16. During the year I have seen all the assistant superintendents of this circle.
The Belgaum assistant superintendent, Balwantrao, is
a new man who was transferred from the Central
circle and promises well. The Kaladgi assistant superintendent, Dattu Balappa,
was transferred from Kolhapur. I found him of much assistance during the year
in the way of explaining to some of the vaccinators the nature of their duties,
and checking many irregularities. These assistant superintendents can render