( 2 )
patients. At the same time, he thinks that vaccination might successfully be made compul-
sory by law in Sylhet, and that the opposition to it arises partly from a distrust of the
intentions of Government and of the arguments used to induce voluntary submission to it.
Average number of operations performed
by vaccinators in each district.
4. The other additions to the staff were in the districts of the Assam Valley:
the increase was, as Dr. Clarke explains, made in October,
which was too late to enable the men to be set to work
as early as was desirable. The Chief Commissioner hopes for better results during
next season. An average of at least 1,000 operations for each vaccinator employed
should be capable of attainment, and is actually- attained in many other parts of
India. Yet Appendix B, Statement III., shows that this moderate figure is approached
only in Cachar (913) and the Khási Hills (900), where no additional men were employed.
The average number of operations per man in other districts is shown below :—
Sibságar ................................
Gáro Hills
........................
Goálpára ............................
Darrang ................................
Kámrúp ................................
Nowgong ........................
Lakhimpur ........................
Sylhet ................................
860
710
515
504
445
393
335
209
In the Gáro Hills the average might have been higher but for a very untoward
incident. One of the vaccinators himself fell sick of small-pox, and his companion had
to leave his work to nurse him. Such an example of the failure of vaccination to protect
the operator (who, Mr. Elliott supposes, must have been vaccinated himself) cannot but
have had a prejudicial effect on its progress in the district. All the other districts in the
list above, except Lakhimpur, received an addition to their staff, and thus the low average
is partly explained.
Work of municipal vaccinators.
5. Of the five municipal vaccinators (who are included in the list given in the
preceding paragraph), only the two in the Sibságar district
performed a fair amount of work :—
Number
of vaccinators.
2
1
2
Number of
vaccinations.
1,768
379
577
Average,
884
379
288
But, as the report does not show when the others were entertained, it is possible that
the lateness of their appointment prevented them from taking full advantage of the
season. In Gauháti, however, the Chief Commissioner observes that the Civil Surgeon
states that the municipal vaccinator was employed in supervising the work of 53
ex-inoculators in the district. This diversion of the operator from his own work was
improper, and unfair to his employers, who paid for his services in the town.
Work of ex-inoculators.
6. The increase in the number of ex-inoculators employed is one of the prominent
features of the year which the Chief Commissioner views with
regret: the more so as, in reviewing former reports, both
Mr. Elliott and his predecessor have pointed out that the employment of these men should
not be permitted except where proper supervision is possible. Nothing tends more to
injure the cause of vaccination than its spread by incompetent agency, and without proper
verification of the success of the operators. It is, no doubt, an advantage when
inoculators can be brought to give up their dangerous trade and take in earnest to that
of vaccination; but it cannot be said that this result is attained when all that is done is
to give the ex-inoculator applying for them a parwána and a few crusts or tubes, and
letting him work as he pleases without inspection or scrutiny of his, results. Of the
96 ex-inoculators employed, all but 6 were at work in the two adjacent districts of
Kámrúp and Goálpára, and the former district has always been that in which they have
been chiefly utilised. Unless the Civil Surgeon can devise some means for bringing their
work to a test, and ensuring that it is really genuine and protective, it would be far better
to abandon this agency altogether, except in the immediate vicinity of the civil station.
These men are said to work only in the neighbourhood of their homes, and to take a small
fee for each operation, which probably explains the small average number of operations
performed per head.
Vaccination on tea-gardens.
7. The tea-garden vaccination reported represents the returns from only a small
number of gardens, and cannot be taken as fully stating the
amount of work of this kind done in the year. The circular
calling for the information and the forms for its supply were issued at too late a date ( the
27th March) to enable the replies to be all received for incorporation in the report. The
Emigration Rules issued under Act VII. (B.C). of 1873 provide (Rule51) for the vaccination