RANCHEE CIRCLE.
29
Operations of a
third party.
9. Native Superintendent Mukhun Lall and party of six vaccinators began
operations in Ranchee thannah, at Childay, ten miles east of Ranchee, on the
Purulia road, near where a few cases were vaccinated in 1870-71. To the east of
this village the thannah consists mainly of a "jungly" track, the haunt of man-
eating tigers, with scattered hamlets, the complete vaccination of which will
be a work of no little difficulty, not to say danger. It was not, however, for
these reasons that this part of Ranchee thannah was not undertaken. The
thannah was found too large to be completely vaccinated last season, and what
was intended and pretty nearly accomplished, was to do so much of it as to
make it possible to finish the remainder another season.
The party under Mukhun Lall worked from Childay north-west to the
new Hazareebagh road, where the men under Mahomed Ishak Khan were
employed, thence proceeding to the south, past Ranchee and Dorunda. In
January they were sent to Ginjo, the western limit of the ground occupied by
Mahomed Ishak Khan, and for the remainder of the season they continued in
the northern part of Chorea thannah, the only portion of it then unprotected.
Vaccination was performed in 255 villages, and in 9,015 cases 94.53 per cent.
were successful. I had to find fault early in the season with two of the
vaccinators, and the native superintendent was at that time inclined to be a little
careless, but the conduct of the party has on the whole been good and their
work creditable.
Assistance was afforded by Laul Jitnath Sahee Deo, zemindar of Ginjo, and
by most of the other zemindars into whose villages the vaccinators went.
10. All the work of which the above is an account, lay in district Lohar-
dugga, and principally in the three thannahs of Ranchee, Chorea, and Lohar-
dugga. A small part of Korambe thannah was worked by the party under
native superintendent Elahee Bux.
Summary.
Ranchee thannah has been well begun, Chorea has been almost finished,
most of the more populous part of Lohardugga thannah, and a portion of
Korambe thannah, have been protected.
Other districts of
the division.
11. II. Hazareebagh, Maunbhoom, and Singbhoom.—None of the Govern-
ment vaccine establishment were employed in Maunbhoom or Singbhoom
during 1871-72. In Hazareebagh district vaccination was conducted chiefly
around Chuttra, a large town in the west of the district, and around Pachamba,
the head-quarters of the sub-division of that name, in the north-east of the
district. An account of the work done in these two places comes more naturally
under the head of
Small-pox.
12. Reports of small-pox.—One hundred and twenty-six reports of small-
pox in 129 villages were received during the year ending 31st March 1872,
no less than 69 of these being from sub-division Palamow, of Lohardugga
district, where two vaccinators were employed nearly all the year. Ninety-
two of the reports were for the months of April, May, and June.
The vaccinators sent out said that many of these reports referred to
chicken-pox (which is very probable), and some of the reports were found to
be altogether incorrect. Out of 340 cases reported, 11 deaths are all that are
mentioned. Every case is not reported to me, and therefore the numbers sent
to me cannot agree with the mortuary returns of Civil Surgeons. The three
native superintendents and those vaccinators not on leave were constantly
employed in the interior of Lohardugga and Hazareebagh districts, from
April to November. From Maunbhoom and Singbhoom no reports of small-pox
were received. The Civil Surgeon of Purulia tells me that there has been no
epidemic small-pox in that district "for some time;" 32 deaths occurred in
1871-72.
Palamow to be
vaccinated next
season
13. Next season's operations should, if possible, embrace some part of
Palamow, the part of the Ranchee circle which is most afflicted by small-pox.
Low caste Hindus form the bulk of the population there, and considerable
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