2
RESOLUTION ON THE REPORT ON VACCINATION IN BURMA
3,000, the maximum for the province being reached in Magwe, where the number
was 4,596. Of the districts mentioned above, the percentage of success in San-
doway (72.91) and Magwe (76.05) was very low and should have been explained
in the report. In the Pegu and Thôngwa districts in Lower Burma and the Katha
and Ruby Mines districts of Upper Burma there was a large falling off. Looking
to the general progress in vaccination work throughout the province, the Chief
Commissioner finds it difficult to believe that the backwardness of these districts
is due to any cause but want of energy on the part of the vaccinators or the local
Superintendents of Vaccination. In the Katha district it is observed that the
percentage of successful cases was the lowest in the province (50.93), and in the
Pegu district it appears from Statement V in the appendix that the vaccinators'
returns of successful cases do not well bear the test of inspection on the spot by
the local Superintendents. It seems to the Chief Commissioner that the quality
of the lymph and the class of vaccinators employed in these districts are alike in
want of improvement. The table printed on page 5 of the report shows how much
still remains to be done before the vaccination work of the province can be regard-
ed as adequate. In four districts of Lower Burma the proportion of successful
vaccinations of children under one year old in 1892-93 was less than 10 per cent.
of the number of infants living. The difference in this respect between the con-
tiguous districts of Hanthawaddy and Pegu, both adjoining Rangoon, is very
striking. In Hanthawaddy the percentage was 76.05, while in Pegu it was only
5.28. The Chief Commissioner is aware of no difference in the circumstances of
the two districts which satisfactorily accounts for this divergence.
Vaccination in Municipalities.
2. The Vaccination Act was during the year 1892-93 extended to the Pegu
Municipality in Lower Burma and to the Pakôkku,
Taungdwingyi, and Mônywa Municipalities in Upper
Burma. It is now in force in all the large Municipalities of the province and in
most of the smaller ones. The table printed on page 4 of the report gives a
general view of the extent of vaccination in the Municipal towns of Lower Burma
and shows that, on the whole, the infant population is fairly protected in these
towns. It would have been interesting if similar information had been given for
the towns in Upper Burma to which the Act has been applied, and if the Superin-
tendent of Vaccination had complied with the request, made at the instance of
the Government of India, that the results of vaccination work in Municipal towns
should be exhibited in a statement similar to that printed on page 2 of the report.
The Chief Commissioner requests that these defects may be remedied in the
report for the current year.
Expenditure.
3. The special establishment maintained for vaccination was the same in
1892-93 as in the preceding year. There was one
more vaccinator in Upper Burma and one less in
Lower Burma. In Upper Burma the aggregate expenditure rose from Rs. 9,712
in 1891-92 to Rs. 11,971 in 1892-93 mainly owing to the increased amount
drawn as travelling allowances and also apparently owing to the payments of
increments to the vaccinators. In Lower Burma the total expenditure decreased
from Rs. 32,663 to Rs. 31,253. In Upper Burma the expenditure on rural vacci-
nation has hitherto been partly defrayed from the district funds, but it has now
been decided that it is not a proper charge against these funds, and the expendi-