lxii
REPORT.
It will be impossible for the present staff of Superintendents to undertake the duty
of superintending these vaccinators in the sense in which they do when they are held
responsible for the work done by the vaccinators on the Government establishment. It
is of importance that an effort should be made to meet the difficulty under consideration,
and while pointing out the imperfect degree of supervision which can be provided, it is
thought right that the following proposal should be brought forward.
Should the Government approve of it, the Superintendent General of Vaccination will
communicate with the Chairmen of the various municipalities, and have the vaccinators
brought so far under his control that he can direct their work to be supervised in any
way that he may be able from time to time to make arrangements for. For the present
it is believed that the vaccinators at Ooterparrah, Balli, and Conenugger might be inspected
once a month by one of the Superintendents for the town of Calcutta. While in the event
of any of the other Superintendents working in the neighbourhood of any of the other
municipalities, they would be directed to take any opportunity of seeing the work done by
municipality vaccinators. When these vaccinators have been made to keep daily registers
of their operations similar to those in use in the department, by verifying these records, a
certain amount of wholesome check could be exercised.
The above proposal is made with considerable confidence, as even though it embodies
a very defective arrangement, a certain amount of exact information regarding the working
of the municipality vaccinators will soon become available which is an important desidera-
tum at present.
Ultimate disposal of these Municipality Vac-
cinators.
5. It does not seem difficult to foresee that ultimately some more permanent arrange-
ment will require to be made with regard to these
vaccinators employed by municipalities. While the
whole country around them is efficiently protected
by a thoroughly organized system of vaccination, the isolated portions possessed of municipal
institutions cannot be left in a more than doubtful state as regards safety from small-pox.
Two alternatives seem to present themselves as feasible under the circumstances above
referred to.
1st.—That the Government should undertake to provide for vaccination within the
municipal limits as well as in the districts round them, and that the municipalities be in-
vited to expend the salaries now paid to vaccinators in any other way which may seem most
needful for the purpose of securing the public health.
2nd.—That the money now expended in the pay of the vaccinators should still be used
for this purpose, but be paid over to the Superintendent General of Vaccination to enable
him to take over the municipal vaccinators as part of the vaccine establishment.
It is far from desirable that either of these more permanent arrangements should be
carried out at present, though an expression of the wishes of the Government is asked for, so
that in whatever is done for the present the ultimate provisions may be kept in view,
and that nothing may be said or written which would render it difficult to carry out its
intentions when the time comes that the change can easily be effected.
Whichever arrangement is made, a vaccinator cannot be kept constantly within the
municipal limits, and as, unless under exceptional circumstances, vaccination would not be
practised every year in the surrounding country, the municipalities would also be subjected
to this disadvantage. It would doubtless lead to irritation should such an arrangement
be made at present. After a very few years most of the difficulties will disappear, when
all the country round has been brought under the influence of vaccination, and the Act
prohibiting inoculation has been extended to a distance of some miles around each muni-
cipality. By pointing to the immunity from small-pox enjoyed by the surrounding population
among whom vaccination is not annually practised, any objection which might be urged
could be shown to be invalid.
There will doubtless be some who will always feel the deprivation of the power of
being vaccinated once a year as a grievance, and to meet their case an arrangement which
exists at present will be sufficient. As any one near Calcutta can have a vaccinator sent to
him by paying the charges incurred in travelling and a gratuity to the child who supplies
the virus.