56
GURGAON DlSTRICT.
96. From the very beginning of the present plague season the people of the
Gurgaon District were strongly opposed to inoculation and consequently only 1,116
operations were performed in the district ; but later on many of the influential people
admitted the Operation to be protective, and Mr. Charters, the Civil Surgeon of the district,
remarks in his report that, as the harmlessness of the Operation has been demonstrated
to the people, they may be more ready to accept it next year.
KARNAL DISTRICT.
The people of the Karnál District were afraid of inoculation and only 2,87g opera-
tions were done. The District Plague Medical Officer states that this attitude of the people
was due to the fact that some persons who had been inoculated during the previous season
contracted plague.
AMBALA DISTRICT.
97. Except in the Jagadhri Tahsd, where the people were averse to the Operation
from the outstart, inoculation was freely accepted in the beginning of the season in the
Ambala District, and in October 1902 17,132 operations were performed.
The Malkowál accident affected only the big towns, the villages were not in-
fluenced by it, and consequently on reassumption of the work a large number of persons,
amounting to 10,830 and 10,794, was, respectively, inoculated during January and February r
but the work declined from March onwards. Altogether 60,716 operations were per-
formed in the district during the year under report.
HOSHIARPUR DISTRICT.
98. It is unfortunate that the report on the inoculation operations in the Hoshifirpar
District, in which the largest measure of success was obtained, was not written by the
Medical Officer in charge of these operations.
The number of inoculations performed in the district between October 1902 and
April 1903 is 158,550, nearly twice as great as that of the inoculations performed in any
other district,—the Jullundur District Coming next with about 82,000 inoculations. It
amounts to about one-sixth of the populalion of the entire district, and is therefore just a
quarter of number which it was hoped to reach.
In the Garhshankar Tahsil about 1 person of every 4, and in the Hoshiarpur Talisil
about 1 in every 5 of the population, was inoculated.
The success which attended the Operation in the Hoshiarpur District was, apart
from the strenuous manner in which all the Inoculating Medical Officers devoted them-
selves to the work, in a great measure due to the active interest displayed by Mr Fagan,
the Deputy Commissioner, and to the confidence reposed in him by the people ; and it can
hardly be doubted that but for the temporary cessation of inoculation necessitated by cir-
cumstances mentioned elsewhere in the report the number of persons inoculated wouldl have
been fully equal to the estimate.
In spite of the serious deficiency in prophylactic and the difficulties incident to
starting extensive operations of the nature, nearly 30,000 persons were inoculated in the
Hoshiarpur District before operations were temporaiily suspended.
As soon as a new supply of prophylactic was obtained in January 1903, inoculation
was vigorously pressed and 40,984 persons were inoculated during the month. In
February this total was exceeded, the monthly total reaching 44931, the largest of any
district. The weekly totals of inoculation in the district during this month were respec-
tively 14.721, 8,505, 10,428 and 11,277, all except the lowest of these beingmore than double
the total number of inoculations performed during week in any other district. In March
the number of persons Coming for ward for inoculation began to decline, the decline being
continued in April 011 account of the people being fully occupied in harvesting. No inocula-
tions were performed after the end of April, and most of the Inoculating Medical Officers
left early in May.
Dr. Datta, who writes the report on the inoculation in the Hoshiarpur District
and who is in touch with native opinion, remarks that the Malkowal accident prejudiced