( 2 )
The Sanitary Commissioner has again omitted to notice the subject referred
to in para. 2 of the Resident's Review on the Report of last year.
5. The vaccination establishments remain much the same as they have
been for the previous two years, Their total cost was Rs. 16,247-13-1, all paid
from provincial funds.
The average cost of each successful operation for the province was Rs. 0-3-9,
against Rs. 0-4-3 in the former year. The average cost varied from
Rs. 0-2-11, the minimum, in the Amraoti District, to Rs. 0-5-3, the maximum,
in the Ellichpur District.
* The latest Report I have.
In the Central Provinces for 1880-81, the average cost for each successful
operation was Rs. 0-2-1¼, while in Oudh for 1877-
78,* I find it Rs. 0-7-4.
The cost of vaccination must, of course, depend upon the number of persons
vaccinated by each vaccinator, and this must again depend upon the character of
the country in which operations are carried on. It will necessarily be more diffi¬
cult to find subjects in the more sparsely populated districts of Basim, Wun, and
the southern portion of Buldana, than in the more densely populated villages of
the valley of Berar.
6. The figures, however, given in para. 7 of the Report do not satisfy me
that this fact is sufficiently recognized. In the Ellichpur District, for instance,
with the large town of Ellichpur, and a great number of very large villages, it
will be noticed that each vaccinator performed only; 1,079 operations, while in
Basim, Buldana, and Wun, where the villages are smaller and much farther apart,
each vaccinator operated on over 1,300 subjects. In the Central Provinces the
average number operated upon by each vaccinator is 1,511. In Oudh, again, I
find the figure to be as low as 641, the highest number in any district, that of
Sitapur being only 930 ; but I notice that vaccination is said " to be in a very
backward state" in the province of Oudh.
I think more work may be expected of vaccinators who work in the valley of
Berar.
7. Referring to the figures given in para. 9 of the Report, it would appear
that about half the number of children born annually are protected by vaccination ;
and Dr. Little claims for Berar that this was the highest ratio attained in
1879-80 by any province in India. Looking at the figures given in the Central
Provinces' Report for 1880-81, and taking the annual birth-rate, as Dr. Little
has, at 40 per mille, I find the percentage of infants successfully vaccinated in the
Central Provinces was 49.4.
The only remark to be made on these figures, it appears to me, is that there
is yet ample scope for the vaccinator's energy, while 50 per cent. of the children
born are unprotected from small-pox.
8. It is gratifying to find that Dr. Little is able to record his satisfac-
tion at the way his own establishments have worked, and for the assistance he
has received at the hands of the native gentlemen named in the concluding
para. of his Report.
Dr. Little's Report shows clearly what has been done during the year, and
proves that under his energetic supervision good work has been accomplished, for
which he deserves the acknowledgments of the Administration.
J. G. BELL,
Offg. Commissioner,
Hyderabad Assigned Districts.
COMMISSIONER's OFFICE, H. A. D.,
AMRAOTI,
The 29th September 1881.