42
VACCINATION IN THE BENGAL PRESIDENCY.
[Part II.
STATEMENT No. III.
PROVINCE.
Bengal ... ... ... ... ...
North-Western Provinces ... ... ... ...
Punjab ... ... ... ... ...
Central Provinces ... ... ... ... ...
Oudh ... ... ... ... ... ...
Hyderabad Assigned Districts ... ... ... ...
Successful vaccination, per
cent. of population.
1872-73.
.88
1.09
1.89
1.4
.13
1.54
1873-74.
1.07
1.18
2.43
1.5
.2
1.3
Everywhere is an improvement noted, except in Hyderabad. Of course
the value of this statement depends wholly upon the accuracy of the census
tables, which, it is to be feared, are not, by any means, a safe basis from which
to draw inferences, or upon which to found argument.
Sufficiency of vacci-
nation calculated on
an assumed birth-
rate.
The sufficiency of vaccination has almost everywhere been estimated on
the birth-rate, and three per cent. of births has been accepted as a fair working
average; but though no objection is stated to this basis of calculation for
Lower Bengal, the North-Western Provinces' Government speaks as follows : —
" The birth-rate you assume, 30 per thousand, is certainly too low. The last
half-yearly infanticide returns, which extend over a considerable population, and
are believed to be very fairly correct, give an annual birth-rate of 38.4 per
thousand, and all the returns and information before Government point to a
birth-rate more like 40 than 30 per thousand." * * " In future, for the purpose
of showing the operations of your department, you should assume a birth-rate of
40 per thousand." In the Central Provinces the assumption was, when calcu-
lating the ratio of vaccinations to births, 36 births per thousand of population;
" but," adds the local Government, " as this is the English rate, it is doubtless too
low an estimate, and it is probable that the real birth-rate is between 50 and
60 per mille." In his report for 1871-72, the Superintendent General of Vac-
cination in Bengal pronounces that, in his opinion, the birth-rate in Calcutta
is lower than has been hitherto thought, that is, below 30 per mille. With
such very divergent opinions, it is indeed difficult to accept any one figure as a
common basis upon which to work; and it can hardly be, although some geo-
graphical difference is almost certain to exist in the birth-rate, that such vast
variations are in reality to be found.
Examples of the in-
sufficiency of vacci-
nation.
Taking the total number of operations performed in Lower Bengal at
791,634, it falls far short of the requirements. The population being 68 mil-
lions, the birth-rate at 30 per 1,000 would be 2,040,000, whereas the total
number of vaccinations is a little more than one-third of this. The population
of the North-Western Provinces is returned at 30,781,204; the birth addition
at 30 per 1,000 would be 923,433, and only 38.6 per cent. of this number was
successfully vaccinated. The subject as it concerns each province will be
found mentioned under each separate head further on.
Records of the eye
infirmary, Calcutta,
afford proof of the
benefits of vaccina-
tion.
As a test of the sufficiency of vaccination in Calcutta, Dr. Charles adduces
the statistics of the eye infirmary. From tables which he quotes, it seems that
73 cases of diseases of the eye, consequent on small-pox, were treated in the
infirmary from February 26th to June 13th, 1844. Between these dates in 1874,
or exactly 30 years subsequently, the number treated at the same infirmary for
the same cause was two only. This is certainly a very significant circumstance;
but the most widely applicable test is that of the vaccine census.
Vaccine census.
Vaccine Census.—The investigations made in Lower Bengal show that
vaccination is steadily progressing among the juvenile population. The figures
show that the proportion of inoculated among the adult population varies be-
tween 70 and 95, and among the juvenile population from 11 to 50 per cent.;
while the ratio of vaccinated in the former is from 2 to 20, and in the latter it
varies from 12 to 60. The proportion of unprotected persons is rather con-
siderable, varying from about two in jails to 30 elsewhere. But as the figures
belong to different districts and to different classes of people under various
circumstances, no general conclusions can at present be drawn from them.