8
Tubes.
10. Failing to procure arm-to-arm vaccination, which is the best of all, tubes pro-
perly filled and well sealed will preserve to vaccinators
better lymph for a longer time than any of the other
methods of storing it; and the very delicacy of the tubes implies a degree of care in their
handling which will not be given to plates and points.
Vesicles and Cicatrices.
11. The vesicles I have been able to see have on the whole been good, of average size,
round, and fairly filled. The cicatrices have been very
various—some well marked, deep and characteristic;
some, small and irregular; and others having such an appearance as would result from the
unseemly sores frequently seen after vaccination. "When a vaccinator had been working with
an imperfect supply of lymph, and had made more than one puncture with one charge of the
lancet, it was curious to observe how precisely the first puncture could be detected by its fine
round foveated cicatrix, while the others in succession were smaller and less characteristic.
Small-pox.
12. This disease has been general throughout the Circle, but not in an epidemic form.
The cases I have seen were of a very mild type. In
Mudebihál of Kaládgi Zilhá, in Gadak near Dharwar, in
Khánápur and Nandigarh in Bidí Táluká of Belgaon Zilhá, and in Hápur of Kanada Zilhá,
outbreaks of the disease have been reported; but with no proper small-pox returns, I am
unable exactly to give numbers and the proportion of deaths, which have been few. In each
case of outbreak when reported, the Zilhá Deputy Superintendent and the vaccinator were
directed to proceed to the spot and to carry out the usual instructions in such cases. In
Hápur was the chief difficulty, on account of the dismissal of Benjamin de Costa, vaccinator
there, and there being no vaccinator to carry on the work. The Deputy Superintendent
remained at that place for nearly two months, and in the absence of a vaccinator carried on
the operations himself until the disease had ceased to spread. This was about January, and
the small amount of the Deputy Superintendent's work about that time may be accounted for
in this way.
Deputy Superintendents.
13. The appointment of such a class of men is a desirable one, but in the meantime
only experimental. For, as Dr. Pinkerton stated in
para. 7 of his Annual Report for 1868, " in consequence
of the number of Jahágirdárs' and Municipalities' vaccinators, no Circle demands closer or
more energetic and systematic superintendence than the Southern."
14. Except in the way of official correspondence, I have not been able to see much
individually of the Deputies of this Circle, regarding their respective fitness for the work; but
I have seen enough to lead me to think that some, at least of the present probationary lot, are
hardly fitted for an office implying a considerable responsibility and requiring a larger amount
of energy and general intelligence than these men seem to possess. Their promotion, altoge-
ther disproportioned to their merits, has resulted in their assuming a certain independence
regarding this office, which I consider prejudicial to the work expected to be done by them.
Instead of diminishing the vernacular correspondence, as might have been anticipated, they
burden the files with the most frivolous and irrelevant correspondence, while in matters of
importance they work without sufficient reference to the office. Too much, I am aware,
cannot be expected from men on probation in a new appointment; but making due allowance
on this score, and although my knowledge of the men in question, and of the Department
generally, is but limited, I am of opinion that a superior and more educated class of men are
required to occupy the position of Deputy Superintendent—men intelligent and energetic,
and sufficiently advanced in years to carry with them a certain amount of authority.
The salary is not so small that good men might not be drawn from the Subordinate
Medical establishment, whose general qualifications have been tested, and who might