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successful in pushing vaccination in a backward district, the number of
vaccinations performed in the district having risen from 16,828 in 1893-94 to
20,234 in the year under report. Twelve districts show a falling off, the
decline being largest in—
Darbhanga ...
Shahabad ...
7,456
6,703
Hazaribagh ...
Bankura
...
6,635
4,165
It is very unsatisfactory to find that the introduction of the licensed system
into Darbhanga should have reduced the number of operations. In Shahabad
and Bankura the falling off is ascribed to the unhealthiness of the district, and
in Hazaribagh to the retention of a clumsy practice, introduced many years ago, of
working through each thana by a two-year rotation, which renders it difficult to
make an accurate comparison between the results of different years. Vaccination
in Calcutta by Municipal vaccinators shows an increase of 35,968, and in munici-
palities and dispensaries of 21,854. The number of vaccinations performed by
the two salaried vaccinators attached to the Animal Vaccine Depôt in Calcutta
rose from 213 in 1892-93 and 234 in 1893-94 to 8,531 in 1894-95, giving the high
average of 4,265 operations for each vaccinator. No mention is made in the notes
of this remarkable increase, which was clearly due to the recent outbreak of small-
pox in Calcutta. Under the circumstances it is not surprising that a large num-
ber of operations should have been done, and there is no reason to distrust the
statistics. In the Chittagong Hill Tracts, on the other hand, which are wrongly
described in the notes as the South Lushai Hills, the high average of 1,578 opera-
tions per vaccinator seems hardly likely to be correct, although, as vaccination
was only started there in 1892-93, the outturn would naturally be a large one.
Attention was drawn to this point in the Resolution on the returns of 1893-94,
and the Lieutenant-Governor is surprised that no notice should have been taken
of his remarks on the subject, and that even the error in the name of the sub-
division should not have been corrected.
4. Protection afforded to infants.—Under this head the returns show an
improvement. The number of infants under one year available for vacci-
nation was estimated at 2,491,305 against 2,461,862 in the preceding year,
and of these 405,065, or 162.59 per thousand, were vaccinated as compared with
363,492, or 147.83 per thousand, in 1893-94. As in the previous year, Malda,
Lohardaga, Darjeeling, and Palamau show the best results. Patna is again
at the bottom of the list, and Gaya, Puri, Shahabad, Cuttack, and the Tributary
States of Orissa also have low percentages. No attempt is made in the report
to give an intelligent explanation of the marked differences which appear in
respect of vaccination between districts of similar character in other respects.
The Sanitary Commissioner contents himself with repeating the suggestion
thrown out in the Resolution on the last year's report that these were apparently
to be accounted for by very unequal activity on the part of the vaccinating
establishment. It does not seem to have occurred to Dr. Gregg to test the
correctness of this view by independent enquiry, or to take steps to raise the
standard of work in these backward districts.
5. Primary operations.—The proportion of successful primary operations
is again incredibly high, being 98.66 for the whole Province against 99.20 in
the previous year. In the Resolution on the report for 1893-94 the attention
of the Sanitary Commissioner was drawn to this point and a further explanation
was called for, which elicited from Dr. Gregg the statement that the vac-
cinators were unwilling to include in their lists any except perfect cases
of operation. This statement is now repeated in general terms, and it is added
that vaccinators " carefully suppress " all doubtful cases in order to avoid being
"harassed by inspecting officers." Further enquiry has shown that so long
ago as January 1894 the Deputy Sanitary Commissioner of the Metropolitan
and Eastern Bengal Circle reported an actual case in which a licensed vaccinator,
when taken to task for not recording unsuccessful cases, replied that he never
entered failures because the District Inspector had told him not to do so. The
existence of this practice seems to explain both the small number of vaccinations
performed and the incredible percentage of successful cases among primary
operations. The only point that still remains obscure is how the Sanitary
Commissioner, who has been in charge of the Department since 1888, can
have failed, in spite of the repeated comments of this Government and of the
Government of India on the inherent improbability of the statistics, to clear
up this simple matter for himself. When the returns of 1893-94 were sub-
mitted, Dr. Gregg had had before him, for more than six months, Dr. Moir's
report referred to above; yet the notes on those returns make no mention
whatever of a fact, the mere suggestion of which vitiates the entire body of
statistics of primary vaccination. Even when a special report was called