( 6 )
Dr. Eteson remarks that mention is nowhere made of any officials who are
responsible for the carrying out of the Act. The Sylhet and Dibrugarh rules, however,
state very plainly who is responsible. The Hospital-Assistant in charge of the dispen-
sary is the Superintendent of Vaccination, under the direct orders of the Civil Surgeon;
he keeps the register of unprotected children, issues notices to parents and guardians,
and institutes prosecutions under the Act if they neglect to have the child vaccinated
within a week. The Gauháti rules are less detailed, but the same duties and responsi-
bilities devolve on the Hospital-Assistant of the dispensary here also, in virtue of his
function as Superintendent of Vaccination in the municipal circle. If, therefore, there is
any failure to enforce the Act (and the figures quoted above certainly suggest such a
suspicion), it can only arise from a neglect of the plain provisions of the rules, and Civil
Surgeons can easily satisfy themselves whether this is the case or not. A special section
upon the working of the Act in the three municipalities and in the cantonment of Dibrugarh
should be appended to the Report for 1884-85, showing the number of vaccinations, the
number of children on the registers, and the extent to which protection has been carried
since the Act has been in force. The number of prosecutions under the Act should also
be ascertained from Deputy-Commissioners, and recorded in this section. In the Sylhet
Administration Report mention is made of 64 cases in which notices were issued under
Section 18 of the Act on parents and guardians who omitted to vaccinate their child-
ren ; but those notices were only issued at the close of the year under report.
Attitude of the people towards vaccina-
tion.
18. The district officers, whose reports are summarised by Dr. Eteson, consider
that, though religious prejudices sometimes interfere, no
active opposition to vaccination exists generally among
the people of Assam. It is stated that the influence of the Barpeta Shastra
was unfavourable in the Goálpára sub-division, and that in Barpeta itself one
section of the Hindus was opposed to vaccination, while the other admits it. The sects
here intended are doubtless the two sects known as Mahapurushias and Damo-
darias, the former being hostile to vaccination, while the Damodarias are not. In the
Jorhát sub-division, again, the reports state that there are communities who consider
it inconsistent with their character as bhakats to be either vaccinated or inoculated even
when epidemic small-pox is raging. But the general view is that the chief difficulty which
vaccination in Assam has to overcome is the preference of the people for inoculation, a
preference founded partly on old custom, and partly on a belief, which is, perhaps, not ill-
grounded, that inoculation affords more certain protection. The Civil Surgeon of Sylhet
writes:—
" The inhabitants of the district are sufficiently familiar with small-pox to wish to have their
children protected, hence they go in largely for inoculation. In many instances the people draw no
distinction between vaccination and inoculation, and complain that the vaccinators only come to see
them once, and that a week after the operation, while the inoculators visit them every day and pay
much attention to them during the development of the eruption, which they are disappointed in not
seeing over the whole body. As far as I have been able to ascertain, about 40 per cent. of the adult
population are inoculated, and this conclusion was arrived at by examining the forearms of numbers
of people."
In Cachar Dr. Monteath examined 534 people, and found that 318 had been inocu-
lated and 12.6 vaccinated; the proportions are 60 and 24 per cent. respectively. Again, the
Civil Surgeon of Tura states that the whole adult population of the Gáro Hills bears the
scar of inoculation, and that " in the north-east portion of the district this practice has
again come into favour, under the plea that small-pox was lately prevalent in their
villages, and that its attacks were confined to those who had been vaccinated, the inocu-
lated ones escaping." A rumour of this kind exemplifies the injury that may be done
to the cause of vaccination by bad work, and the necessity of exercising active and exten-
sive supervision over the vaccinators.
The Chief Commissioner, however, thinks that district officers have underrated the
weight and volume of the religious opposition to vaccination in the Assam Valley. The
influence of the Goshains and other heads of religious establishments is a factor in the
social and moral life of the Assamese which has never been thoroughly fathomed or properly
understood, and the whole of that influence (with very few exceptions) is directed against
vaccination. Sordid interests enter into this opposition no less than religious prejudices:
almost every Goshain levies heavy fines from his disciples if they permit a child to be
vaccinated, and a large portion of the revenues of the Barpeta Shatra is derived from
this source. Some levy Rs. 5 in such cases, some levy Rs. 20 or Rs. 25; the most influential
of all of these priests, the Aunihati Goshain, is said never to take less than Rs. 100. The
Dihingia Goshain two years ago received great credit for having written a letter to the
Deputy-Commissioner of Nowgong, stating that he allowed his disciples to be vaccinated.
Copies of this letter were given to the vaccinators, and a considerable increase in the num¬