DARJEELING CIRCLE.
13
worthy of some gratuity from the local Government, as the work has been very arduous and
has been performed with zeal.
Rajshahye.
7. There are five vaccinators employed in the Rajshahye district, two of them in
and about the town of Rampore Beauleah, one in the large native town
Nattore, and the other two at district thannahs. Three vaccinators are
supported by the local funds of Nattore, and two of them did good work during the season.
I supplied them with instruments and had their returns made in the prescribed forms. The
Government vaccinator at Nattore was the first whose work was visited. He is the old
dispensary vaccinator, having been employed there for about twelve years. In many of the
small villages composing the outskirts of the town only two or three cases could be shown,
the rest of the inhabitants having been protected in previous years. Some men who had
been vaccinated in their youth could show good cicatrices. Further from the town numerous
cases were found. There seemed to have been little inoculation here for some; time but
near Lallpore thannah, twenty miles to the south of Nattore, the majority of the people
had been protected in this way, the vaccinator having few cases of operation over three
years of age. In and about Rampore Beauleah there was small-pox throughout most of the
cold season; in some cases introduced from other districts, in others the result of inoculation.
It was kept in check by vaccination, and Inever learned that it really became epidemic.
There was an inoculator in this district who tried to discredit vaccination by informing the
people that its good effects lasted only for three years. In the neighbourhood of his village,
however, vaccination was going on, but the people inquired of me the truth as to his state-
ments, evidently not quite satisfied about the real protective nature of vaccination.
Dinagepore.
8. In the Dinagepore district there are six vaccinators under a Hindoo native
superintendent, one of the three trained in Rohilkund under Dr. Pearson.
This man has a thorough acquaintance with his work, but I do not find
him so trustworthy or zealous as the other two. All the men under him are Hindoos and
formerly inoculators, and are fond of following their old irregular practice of visiting a village
here and there at pleasure instead of following the systematic plan of vaccinating from
village to village without passing over any, and so efficiently protecting one part of a district
before passing to another. I find that inoculators do not appear to have the same standing
among the people when employed as vaccinators as men who have never been inoculators.
There is much greater difficulty in getting the people to show those vaccinated by old inocu-
lators than by the ordinary men of the department. The inoculators, too, usually seem to sneak
into the villages, not walking openly in and asking the people to produce those vaccinated for
my inspection. The practice of giving service to inoculators as vaccinators may have served
the purpose of checking the custom of inoculation in places, but I think the department is
entitled to look for more worthy and respectable subordinates than are usually found among
the inoculator class.
Small-pox appeared in two sub-divisions of the Dinagepore district during the cold
season. In Gungarampore, about twenty miles to the south of the sudder station, the people
openly ascribed the outbreak to contagion, introduced from villages farther south, where an
inoculator had been working. It was stamped out by vaccination The civil surgeon of
Dinagepore, immediately he knew of it, sent one of his subordinates supplied with lymph
to the neighbourhood. A vaccinator was also removed from his station, and remained work-
ing in the sub-division for the rest of the season. The other outbreak of small-pox was a
much more severe one, beginning early in the cold season and continuing to spread slowly
from village to village over the district lying between the Kalligunge and Hemtabad thannahs,
to the west of Dinagepore. The space affected was about seven to eight miles from east to
west, and twelve miles to the south of the road connecting the two thannahs. From
December to the beginning of February two vaccinators were working near Kalligunge
and among the affected villages. A better result would have been brought about if they had
remained in the latter; but after operating on the people of the village where small-pox
actually was, they returned to the vicinity of the thannah and recommenced there. The
villages being close to one another, and the people in daily communication, a reappearance
of the disease was constantly occurring. In this matter the conduct of the native superintend-
ent is worthy of disapproval. He seemed more desirous of having a large number of cases
of vaccination to show, than to suppress small-pox. Two more vaccinators were removed
from other stations to assist, and the spread of the disease was reported as being controlled
by the end of February. It had, however, affected such a large district of country, that a fresh
outbreak of it in another sub-division was brought under my notice by the magistrate early
in the month of May. The origin of the disease was not clear. It appeared to have travelled
northwards from the Maldah district. The villagers were most anxious for vaccination, and
frequently came considerable distances, eagerly requesting that vaccinators might be sent
to them. As the civil surgeon was apprehensive that small-pox might be introduced into
Dinagepore, he was enthusiastic in his efforts in vaccinating in the native town.
d