Part II.]
VACCINATION IN THE BENGAL PRESIDENCY.
51
Attention to the pecu-
liarities of the people
and their customs es-
sential to success.
It can be easily understood that a thorough knowledge of the people and
their superstitions is an essential qualification of a good superintendent. The
Benares circle of the North-Western Provinces has suffered much from fre-
quent changes of superintendents, who have annually been transferred else-
where just as the requisite local information and qualification had been attained.
The deputy superintendent of the Sonthal Pergunnahs has demonstrated what
can be accomplished by studying the peculiarities of a strange people ; and the
most astonishing success has been attained by the assistant surgeon at
Peshawur simply by tact and perseverance in his management of the popula-
tion of the city. Other examples might be given, but it is sufficient to state
that the broad principle of attention to the peculiarities of the various races
with which they come so closely in contact has been appreciated by superin-
tending officers very generally.
Prejudices sub-
siding.
The inference to be drawn from the fact that the average amount of work
performed by each operator steadily increases each year, is that prejudices are
subsiding and obstacles disappearing.
Two chief obstacles
to be encountered.
There are two chief obstacles which are encountered almost everywhere
throughout the Presidency,—the difficulty of procuring vaccinifers, by which
to keep up arm-to-arm vaccination, and the strong objection the people have to
permit their infants to be vaccinated. The former of these obstacles has its
origin apparently in the belief, not unknown among the ignorant in England,
that some of the virtue of the process is abstracted by the act of removing a
little of the mature lymph; and the custom with regard to the age at which
inoculation is ordinarily performed (five or six years,) is responsible for the latter.
These are really formidable difficulties which tax the temper and ingenuity of
the workers to no small degree.
Difficulties imposed
by customs and su-
perstitious.
Then there are many circumstances which are considered sufficient to
prohibit the practice of vaccination, such as births, deaths, pregnancies, &c.
The assistant surgeon of Peshawur writes—" Sometimes the days of taking
lymph would unfortunately correspond with the days believed to be unfavour-
able by the parents. Hindus will never allow their children to be vaccinated
on Sunday (some even not on Wednesday), on the first day of a month, on the
11th day of a moon, and on the occasion of several other holy observances.
Thursday is sacred with the Mahommedans, Ramzan, I'd; the Holi festivals, &c.,
were also enemies that hindered our progress."
The " fear of impotence" resulting from vaccination is a superstition in the
north of the Punjab, which may be added to the list enumerated in last year's
report.
An instance of superstition favouring vaccination is recorded by the
superintendent of the Benares circle. A hill Brahmin who vaccinates in the
Goruckpore district is positively worshipped by the villagers, and he can do
exactly as he pleases with them.
How to overcome vil-
lage resistance.
The deputy superintendent of the Sonthal Pergunnahs advocates an ex-
cellent plan of encountering resistance:—He orders his vaccinators to keep
aloof for a time, but to go on protecting such neighbouring villages as yield to
moderate influences. Unless the opposition is based upon obstinate religious
prejudice, which it very seldom is, the recusant village succumbs after a time
when it has beheld its neighbours overcome. In this way both time and energy
are economised.
Efforts to stamp out
small-pox out breaks.
calculated to create a
distrust in vaccination.
The practice of stamping-out outbreaks of small-pox, has, as hitherto, been
followed during the year with more or less success, but though good is by this
means frequently accomplished, and possibly a large tract of country sometimes
spared the ravages of the disease, it is worthy of remembrance that an inevi-
table evil is an accompaniment of such attempts, in that many people who
have imbibed the poison are on these occasions vaccinated, and before the pro-
phylactic has had time to exert its effect, the variola eruption appears. A few
such cases produce a feeling of utter distrust in the preventive powers of the
vaccine virus throughout the community who have witnessed the occurrence.
Attitude
of the
people.
As to the attitude assumed by the people towards vaccination in the differ-
ent provinces, it is really astonishing, considering the highly conservative
constitution of the people in all ranks of society, that there is so very little
active opposition. In the province of Bengal there is ample evidence that