Fifth Annual Report of Vaccination in the Sonthal Pergunnahs during the year 1871-72, by
SUB-ASSISTANT SURGEON KALI KRISHNA GHOSE.
I HAVE the honor to submit the annual returns and report of the Sonthal
Pergunnahs vaccine circle for the year (1871-72) ending 31st March 1872.
Establishment
2. At the beginning of the year the staff of vaccinators belonging to this
circle had been reduced to four, one man having been dismissed for neglect of
duty in March 1871, and another having left his post in May. It was then
thought unnecessary to employ men during the non-working season. Trained
men, however, were not to be found for the vacant posts ; and as experience had
taught me that it would be worse than useless to employ men totally ignorant
of the art of vaccination, I undertook, some weeks previous to the approach of
the season, to train up men for the posts. I selected two from among the
candidates who presented themselves, and began to give them lessons in
vaccination in my leisure hours and to show them the right method of operating.
They were told that they were not to be appointed until they had satisfied
me that they were fit for being so. On the approach of the season they began
to work under my immediate supervision in the town and its vicinity, and then
by the middle of October, when it was found on inspection of their work that
they were tolerably well up in the art of vaccination, they were admitted into
my staff.
There was yet, however, one more difficulty to be overcome. Raw youths
unacquainted with the language, the customs and usages of a barbarous people,
are miserably deficient in the tact and energy necessary to enable them to
cope with their prejudices or to keep terms with their crude superstitious
notions. To obviate this difficulty I associated these new men with old experi-
enced hands, and then when they had acquired tact and skill enough for inde-
pendent action, they were allowed to work for themselves in distant quarters.
The result of this arrangement was as it should be, for I have not had this
year to complain of the inefficiency of my staff as I had to do last year. These
new hands, as well as those old ones with whom I had taken the greatest pains,
last year as well as in this, to bring up to a certain standard of efficiency, have,
as the results given below fully prove, worked to my satisfaction.
At the kind recommendation of the Civil Surgeon, Sonthal Pergunnahs, and
the Inspector-General of Hospitals, Government has been pleased to sanction
a graded scale of pay for the vaccinators of this circle, and this has no doubt
added a fresh stimulus to their exertions. This arrangement has been allowed
to take effect from the 1st December 1871.
Plan of work
3. On the approach of the season, being fully convinced of the necessity
of systematic action and the utter worthlessness of all desultory proceedings,
I felt that it would be unwise, with the small staff at my command, to scatter
the work too much over a wide extent of country. I thought the work would
progress much more favorably if it were allowed to proceed gradually from one
district to another, than if it were to touch a certain portion of one district in
one season and to jump over to a distant district in the next. Upon these
considerations I obtained the consent of the Civil Surgeon, Sonthal Pergunnahs,
who was kind enough to approve of my scheme, to carry on work in the remain-
ing portions of Rajmehal, as well as in the adjoining sub-division of Pakour. I
also proposed, if possible, to introduce the work in the district of Godda.
In introducing the work in these two new districts, I adopted the following
course, which I think fit to mention. The zemindars of Pakour, who were
induced to assist me in the work towards the close of last season, were found
very backward this season from some disturbance in their estates. I therefore
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