35
where vaccination is compulsory, and the people highly educated and well-off,
as in England, Germany and Sweden, the influence of local authorities is a
constant moral aid to the compulsion of the law ; and we have seen the disas-
trous results of ignoring such aid in the epidemics of small-pox which have
in recent years afflicted London as compared with the immunity of Sweden,
where the influence of the clergy, all officials and leading men of the country
throw the weight of their influence on the side of the law of compulsion.
While then heartily acknowledging the moral aid of the revenue and poli-
tical officers, I invoke its continuance. The youngest revenue officer can
aid the department by merely calling for a village register of vaccination and
calculating roughly the rate per mille vaccinated to population in say the
preceding two years. We should certainly aim at vaccinating over 30 per
mille annually of the population if the births be 40.96 per mille.
Deaths from small-pox .
70. In table No. VII. I have shown, in the last column, the number of
deaths from small-pox in each registration circle.
The total registered for the whole presidency in the
calendar year 1874 was 3,903, in 1873 the number
was 9,946, and in 1872 it was 26,699. There is not the least doubt about
the uncertainty of these figures, and I consider them so unreliable for statis-
tical purposes, that I place no exact value on them; but, although they are
not of any exact statistical value, they are of this relative value—that they
show the deaths from small-pox were very many fewer in 1874 than in
1873, and many fewer in 1873 than in 1872.
The immunity from small-pox of a district, in any particular year, must
not be looked on as an indication of vaccination having been more thorough
there than in other districts which may have been afflicted by the disease—
for instance, the Ratnágiri collectorate is one of the best vaccinated districts
in the Central circle, and yet there were more deaths in it in 1874 than in all
the other four collectorates of the circle put together. I do not think we
can reasonably expect ever to prevent small-pox entirely by voluntary vacci-
nation, because in all districts there remains an annual residunm of unvacci¬
nated which, after accumulating for several years, gives a fine field for small-
pox.
At this moment I illustrate what 1 say by Belgáum and Dhár¬
wád—in each of these zilhás the residuum is so large that I can safely pre-
diet that a wave of small-pox may shortly be expected to sweep over their
populations ; but the people are so generally protected, that the disease will
probably not arouse attention until the deaths are tabulated at the end of the
year. In my remarks on the progress of vaccination in each district, I will
notice the number of deaths in each.
Small-pox deaths in
Central circle.
1st.—The Central circle has been free of any
epidemic, but still the deaths numbered 572.
Small-pox in the South-
ern circle.
2nd.—Dr. Raby says there have been a good many cases of small-pox
in Kánadá; but the returns show that there were a
good many in all the zilhás of the Southern circle—
indeed, nearly the half of the total deaths occurred
in Dr. Raby's circle; 1,592 in the 4 zilhás.
Small-pox in the East-
ern Gujarath circle.
3rd.—Dr. Cola says :—" Sporadic cases occurred in some parts of Panch
" Mahals about the early part of January ; and, about
" the close of the year, the disease appeared in Kasba
" Randir and some villages of Chorási, Ulpad, and
" Mándvi tálukás of Surat zilhá, and it was traced to have been intro¬