DARJEELING CIRCLE.
13
There is little hope of vaccination becoming self-supporting if even the rich inhabitants of
towns are allowed always to look to Government for it.
The inoculators in Bograh, so far as I know, have almost given up their practice since
the establishment of the Darjeeling- vaccination circle. How long this happy state of matters
will continue is hard to say. Arm-to-arm vaccination is practised in this district, lymph
never being carried on ivory slips except to a distance.
I only met with one family who rejected vaccination. They were Kayeths by caste,
and refused inoculation equally. This had been their custom for centuries, and they stated
that they did not mean to change it, accepting the risk of small-pox. They interfered in no
way with their neighbours, who were all vaccinated.
7. Rajshahye.—In this district also the return shows the number of persons vaccinated
to be less than last year; the vaccinators supported by the local fund of Nattore were however
reduced in number. There were 2,286 2/3 persons operated on by each vaccinator, which is a
fair average.
The police report 68 inoculators in this district. They, I regret to say, have not been
quiescent; quite the contrary. In addition to inoculating in some places where the custom
had been in abeyance for thirty or forty years, I found that one man had been following the
vaccinator about and discrediting his operations, and this close to the Charghat thannah, the
officer in charge not moving in any way in the matter.
There is a class of Mussalmans, the Ferazees, who are numerous in Rajshahye; they are
universally unfavorable to vaccination, and from long conversations with them I am convinced
that they are not opposed to vaccination as vaccination, but as a measure of the British
Government, looking on all schemes proceeding from that source as worthy of every form of
opposition. I have not met with one Ferazee who could bring forward any of the reasonable
objections Hindoos can sometimes do; but I have met with insult when trying to prevail
upon them to be vaccinated.
The vaccinator supported in Nattore by local funds reported to me that when carrying
on his work in a village close to the palace of the Rajah of Digaputtiah, the headman,
Kashinath by name, stopped it. On inquiry I found this true.
Kashinath of course denied to me in any way interfering, but I was satisfied he had
done so in a mischievous way, as a good part of the village had been vaccinated before the
matter came to his knowledge, not one case afterwards. This man speaks English freely.
Besides being headman of a village under the Rajah of Digaputtiah, he is himself a zemindar.
I failed in communicating with the Rajah, as he was then on a hunting excursiou. How far
the Government of Bengal will permit zemindars, its rent collectors, to interfere with its
sanitary measures, I do not know; but I think it should hold them responsible if they use the
authority natural to their position to deprive the ryots of the benefits of such measures.
Another case occurred near Bagmara, where the naib of the zemindaree cutcherry
prevented vaccination even in the presence of small-pox. I reported this for the orders of
the Magistrate of the district
Small-pox was introduced into Rajshahye in December from the Pubna district; and the
vaccinator sent to Burrygram, the affected place, reported its cessation early in January. It
however re-appeared in March, and was reported from several other thannah jurisdictions in
this month. In Bagmara it was found that inoculators had been at work for a long time,
and the disease had been extensively produced before any intimation was given me.
Vaccination had never been practised in Bagmara, and a Hindoo vaccinator sent had to
return without performing a single operation. A Mussalman was then sent with little
better result. The native Superintendent was unfortunatelyabsent in Bograh, attending to
the outbreaks there, the Deputy Superintendent amusing himself by vaccinating the children
of native gentlemen at Julpigoree, a place where he had been forbidden to remain, while the
Superintendent was dividing his time between the outbreaks of small-pox in Rungpore and
Dinagepore. For these reasons Rajshahye did not receive quite the attention requisite, and
the disease was still present at the end of March. The measures afterwards taken do not
come within the scope of the report of 1870-71. Better results may be hoped for when
there is a native Superintendent permanently in the district.
8. Dinagepore.—There has been a large increase in the number of vaccinations in this
district from the previous year, but operations commenced in September on account of small-
pox, and continued up to the end of March. The average percentage of success is a very low
one—only 88.61 ; the operations performed in September and October being so unsuccessful