20
Re-vaccination.
11. Re-vaccination has made some progress this year, but nearly half the operations
under this head have been performed in the Native State
of Sáwantwádî, where vaccination has received such an
attention hitherto that there are scarcely any arrears left, and so the vaccinator can turn his
attention to re-vaccination. Within our own territory the arrears to be cleared off are so
great that very little attention can be given to the subject of re-vaccination for some time
to come, and so little progress in it need be expected.
General Progress.
Tháná Collectorate.
12. In giving an outline of the general progress of vaccination during the year, I shall
take the different collectorates and Native States com-
posing this Circle in detail, and speak of each as I go;
and first, I shall speak of the Collectorate of Tháná. If the returns from this Collectorate
for this year be compared with the preceding one, they will show a decrease of 71. This,
which is after all about the best test we can have, tends to show that vaccination in Tháná
has not progressed so satisfactorily as could be wished, for the number of vaccinators employ-
ed during the past year was greater by three than that in the year preceding it, and in
the face of this increased number of hands the fact of exhibiting a lesser quantity of work
demands some explanation. In the paragraph on " Vaccinators'' I called attention to want of
zeal on the part of the men of this zilhá, and also stated that sickness prevailed among them
to some considerable extent as a body. I think, too, a little weeding out is required, and that
the coming year's returns would be advantaged by dispensing with the services of two at
least of the individuals, and the employment of new hands who would display some more
energy in the performance of their duties. All these causes combined have had a good deal
to do with, what I must call, the backward state of vaccination in Tháná this year, and
are no doubt the chief cause of its being so. But I think there is still another cause, which
tended to. militate against it, and that is a want of cordial support from the Officials and
their subordinates. I have had a good many complaints from vaccinators in different parts
of the zilhá on this subject, and when I have had occasion to censure any of them for the
small quantity of his work, the want of proper assistance from the Village Officers was
generally brought forward as their excuse. I, of course, always take an excuse of this kind
for what its worth, but here I must say that in some instances I believe there was value
attached to such an excuse. I have gone over a good deal of the Tháná Collectorate this
year, and, without particularising, I am sorry to say that while doing so I noticed a luke¬
warmness amongst the District Officials concerning the subject in which I was interested,
that, if persevered in, will eventually affect its very vitality. The success of vaccination in
each zilhá, as long as it is merely voluntary, will depend altogether on the amount of interest
it possesses for, and favor it receives from the authorities ; and where these are at a mini-
mum, vaccination is at a minimum also. It is scarcely necessary for me to say that the
District Subordinates of the mofussil are as ready and as apt in taking the cue from their
masters as the most pampered flunkey, and that they invariably confine their exertions to
what they know possesses interest for their immediate superiors. A subject, therefore, that
is merely passively tolerated, as vaccination appears to be in Tháná, can scarcely be expected
to enlist in its favor the zeal and interest of the District Subordinates, without which its
furtherance and general reception cannot make much way amongst the people.
Kolábá Collectorate.
13. In the Kolábá Collectorate the returns for this year are not so satisfactory as
those submitted in the preceding one. But the differ-
ence is so very small, some 500 operations, that vacci-
nation can scarcely be said to have lost ground in reality. The cause of the deficiency here
is, I consider, altogether due to a less zealous discharge of their duties by the Vaccinators
this year than 1870-71. The subject seems to possess just as much interest as hitherto for
the authorities, and I do not think the decrease in the amount of work this year can be attri-