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vaccinators for Sylhet district were sanctioned. It would be convenient if the report
contained a reference to all Government orders sanctioning an increase on the budget allot-
ments. Dr. Eteson says that the sum sanctioned by Government for vaccinators' pay was
Rs. 4,689, but Rs. 550 of this remained unutilised, and he conjectures that the
reason was the inability of Civil Surgeons to get together their full quota of temporary
vaccinators at the beginning of the season. This is a point on which definite informa-
tion should be afforded in next year's report.
Permanent versus temporary vaccinators
13. The Civil Surgeon and the Deputy-Commissioner of Sylhet concur in repre-
senting the disadvantages attending the employment of
temporary vaccinators, the difficulty of beginning the season
with a full staff, the inferiority of the work done by unpractised men, and their want
of familiarity with the people among whom they are sent. The difference of cost
between permanent and temporary pay, however, is too great to permit of any general
change being made in the present system of recruiting the vaccinating staff. It does not
follow that because men are only employed for a season of the year, different men should
be employed each year. In other provinces where the same. system is followed, the
vaccinators go to their homes for the recess, and return to their duties in the cold
weather. The Chief Commissioner sees no reason why it should be impossible to obtain
vaccinators on the same terms in Assam.
Increase in the number of vaccinators.
14. In two districts an increase in the number of vaccinators is proposed. The
Nowgong Local Board wish to raise the number from three
to ten, and Dr. Eteson proposes an addition of four
Local Fund vaccinators to the four Government vaccinators of Darrang. For both districts,
also, a Native Superintendent on Rs. 25 a month is said to be wanted. The Chief
Commissioner is willing to provide the Superintendent out of provincial revenues whenever
the number of vaccinators is sufficient to require such supervision, but he thinks that the
increase in the number of vaccinators in plains districts should ordinarily be provided for
out of the funds of the Local Boards. and he is glad to record that the Local Boards have
shared this view, and have responded in a most satisfactory manner to his suggestions.
In the budget for 1884-85 provision is made for the entertainment of vaccinators by 18
out of the 19 Local Boards in the Province, and in the case of the missing one, South
Sylhet, some mistake seems to have occurred, for it had 3 vaccinators in 1883-84 and
presumably did not intend to reduce them. The total number provided for in the
budgets of 1884-85 is 33.
Cost of each operation.
15. Including the work done by the unpaid agency of ex-inoculators, the average
cost of each successful operation, whether primary or
secondary, was 1½ anna: last year it was 1¼ anna.
Excluding operations by ex-inoculators, these averages rise to 13/4 and 1½ anna respectively.
Supply of lymph.
16. The reports of the failure of attempts to vaccinate by reason of the badness of
the lymph continue to be discouraging, and the cause requires
careful investigation, for the Chief Commissioner believes
that in other Provinces no such difficulties are experienced. It is partly due, in all
probability, to the ignorance of the vaccinators, who cannot distinguish bad lymph
from good: and the evil done by the use of bad lymph is wide and far reaching, both in the
discouragement it produces when the subject is found to be unprotected from small-pox,
and in the discomfort and suffering caused by the sores which result from it. A remark-
able instance of this latter evil came under Dr. Eteson's own observation, and is narrated
in paragraph 82 of his Sanitary Report. No great success attended the attempts made
in 1883-84 to renew the supply of lymph by import from other Provinces and from
England. The English lymph proved an almost total failure, and bovine lymph
sent from Bengal and Bombay did no better. The best lymph came from Almora.
Compulsory vaccination.
17. Dr.Eteson remarks that the Compulsory Vaccination Act has hitherto been
practically a dead letter in Assam. It is in force only in
the municipalities of Sylhet, Gauháti, and Dibrugarh, and
in Dibrugarh cantonment, and the work done in the three municipalities in 1883-84. as
compared with the population, is shown below. These figures are taken from the
municipal Administration Reports, and include all vaccinations performed within
municipal limits, whether by municipal vaccinators or others :—
Municipality.
Sylhet ... ...
Gauháti ... ...
Dibrugarh
...
...
Population.
14,407
11,695
7,153
Number of operations.
1882-83.
1,567
1,121
...
1883-84.
441
1,441
164