6
CALCUTTA AND THE SUBURBS.
The protection of
Calcutta shown
graphically.
9. The map showing amount of protection in Calcutta and Suburbs.—In
obedience to instructions, a map coloured to show the amount of protec-
tion existing in Calcutta and the suburbs is forwarded. The percentage
of protection at the end of the vaccinating season is slightly greater than
at the beginning of the vaccinating season, but as the map has been
coloured from a rough estimate, any difference on this account is too small
to be appreciable. No data exist, or are for the present procurable, to enable
such an exact method to be very satisfactorily carried out; but from a general
knowledge of the subject, and from the information derived from the
Superintendents of the different divisions, as close an approximation
as is attainable has been arrived at. It will be seen that it has thus
been attempted to express the fact arithmetically without any figures
having been used in arriving at the conclusion. There is no reason why the
figure 97 instead of 95 should not have been adopted to express the very perfect
protection enjoyed by the suburbs, or 87 instead of 90 to express the less
protected state of Calcutta. Either figures, however, will serve to show at a
glance sufficiently well the state of protection believed to exist.
Unprotected loca¬
lities.
As regards the less protected localities, with the exception of Burra
Bazaar, none of them constitute any longer real sources of danger, as the
moment small-pox appears the establishment will be able to put more heavy
pressure on the inhabitants and have them rapidly protected. When there is
no small-pox, where the population is disposed to be quarrelsome, it is a less
evil to be content to leave considerable numbers unprotected while remaining
on friendly terms with the people, than to come to an open rupture by attempting
too much and thus losing the power of applying sufficient pressure on emer-
gency. The Burra Bazaar seems now the only source of (comparatively) great
danger. The exact amount of protection in it has not been determined.
Nothing can be done openly towards remedying this state of uncertainty, but
the assistance of two medical men in large practice in this quarter has been
enlisted to procure what information they can month by month without
attracting attention, so that we may hope in a short time to be in a better
position to estimate the danger to be apprehended. As the adult population
is protected by small-pox, and as the juvenile population, which bears a small
proportion to the adult, is sent up-country, where they are at once attacked
with small-pox, year by year as the state of protection' of the other residents
in Calcutta becomes improved, the danger from this source becomes of less and
less importance, for it is not likely to increase either by births or additions from
up-country beyond a steady average.
Difficulties in util-
izing
registra-
tion as an aid to
vaccination.
10. Birth Registers.—For two years an attempt has been made to organize
a system of checking the vaccinations of the year by the registers. On going
over the registers and sending agents to find out the children registered, an
unlooked for difficulty has arisen in most cases, as it has been found quite
impossible to trace the children.
In the majority of cases no attempt has been made to specify the numbers
of the house in which the birth took place, and even when a number has been
written down, the quarter of the town, and not the name of the street, has been
noted. Among the dozen or twenty streets and lanes in any quarter it is quite
impossible for a vaccinator to single out the one where the birth took place.
Another difficulty, which is insurmountable till a change in the mode of keeping
the registers is effected, consists in the name of the informant, and not that of
the guardian or parent of the child, being often filled into the register. If the
name of the actual occupier of the house were registered, it would often afford
an efficient clue to tracing out the house. A communication will be addressed
to the Commissioner of Police with the view of making the necessary changes in
the way the birth registers are kept, so as to make them available to assist in
carrying out vaccine operations.
Calcutta, 18th May 1872.