DARJEELING CIRCLE.
11
Debeegunge, in the Boda Chukla thannah jurisdiction of Julpigoree, in December. No
vaccination had ever been practised in this village before, and it was with great difficulty that
the people could be prevailed upon to accept it. Debeegunge is a large bunder on the Kurtoo
river, and contains people of many different castes and occupations. There were no zemindaree
amlah resident to influence them. Small-pox of a mild form continued to spread from one
mohulla to another during all the cold season among the people who were not vaccinated.
Some mohullas, after months of refusal, consented to be vaccinated at last. A fair amount
of work having been done in the neighbouring villages, the disease did not spread except
into one village, where there were two cases, boys whose mother said they had been inoculated.
Their brother, who was vaccinated, escaped. The two other outbreaks of small-pox in Julpi-
goree were at Titalyah and Sunasikutta on the Ganges and Darjeeling road, in the month of
March 1871. Early information having been given by the police, the vaccinators stamped out
the disease before the end of the month. The outbreak in the Terai sub-division lasted
longer, as from the great heat at the end of March the cases where vaccination failed would
not submit to have the operations performed again. These persons became subjects of the
disease which I traced to a village in the north of the Purneah district, where inoculation
was being practised.
4. Cooch Behar.—Vaccination made good progress in this Native state, except at one
station, where a vaccinator was placed for the first time. Here there is a class called Moringhees
or Moonghias, hereditary slaves of the rajah, who believe that from among themselves a
future rajah will appear. They are described by the Commissioner as ignorant and turbulent,
and had before resisted his authority. They suspected that vaccination covered some design
for discovering by means of his blood the person who was to prove the new rajah, and they
resisted it by all means in their power; for when the Deputy Commissioner proclaimed among
them that vaccination was purely a sanitary measure, they tore up the proclamation and
beat the police. In consequence of this he withdrew all vaccinators from the district to
the town of Cooch Behar and its vicinity, where the work went on as usual. The Commis-
sioner, however, considered it prudent to discontinue vaccination in the Cooch Behar state;
so that after it had been established two years, and had made satisfactory progress, the gang
of vaccinators has been removed to other districts. This I consider a most unfortunate
measure, as little better than yielding to the dictation of a criminal part of the population, and
cutting off from the peaceful and loyal part of it the benefits of vaccination. I trust the
Government will issue instructions either for its permanent adoption or discontinuance in this
state. No amount of protection worthy of any consideration can be afforded unless the work
is allowed to go on from year to year; and it would take months to organize as good a gang
of vaccinators as that which had been got together and is now broken up. Surely, the
executive authority ought to be strong enough to afford protection to persons following
such a peaceful employment as vaccination. The idea entertained by the Moonghias is
one common among Mussalmans of the North-Western Provinces, yet vaccination has not
been discontinued there. From which is the greater danger to society to be apprehended—
the slaves of a petty native state or the powerful and bigoted Mussalmans of Hindoostan ?
5. Rungpore.—The history of vaccination in this district during the year is little more
than a constant hunting up and suppression of outbreaks of small-pox. As soon as the
vaccinators ceased working in March 1870, moculators, in spite of the heat of the weather,
commenced operating all over the district, and this was carefully concealed by the police.
An epidemic of small-pox was produced, resulting, according to the very incorrect police accounts,
inabout 366 deaths. This continued during the hot season, and gradually decreased during
the rains. The only two vaccinators who would leave their homes in May were sent to
affected places, but did not succeed in vaccinating a single person. No measures, so far as
I could learn, were taken by the Magistrate for the isolation of affected villages, or the
segregation of the sick. During the rainy season the native Superintendent and all the vaccin-
ators were re-called and distributed through the district at thannahs where the police report-
ed small-pox. I also went down in September and visited Dimlah, Rungpore, and Nesbet-
gunge—places I could reach in a palkee; but being unable to procure elephants. I could
not remove my camp off the high roads, the country being then cultivated in rice. Two of
the vaccinators were eighty miles apart, with one native Superintendent to supervise their
operations. The people held out as long as the weather was hot in their refusal of vaccin-
ation, but, as usual, in November accepted it in most places freely, even where it had never
practised before. By the end of November small-pox had been stamped out in Baroonee,
Dimlah, Darwanee, Nesbetgunge, Borobaree and Nagessary thannah jurisdictions, and this
state of the public health might have continued if inoculation had not been recommenced
late in January or early in February in the Chilmaree thannah jurisdiction within a mile
or so of the thannah. This went on till discovered by the native Superintendent of vaccin-
ation, the resident police being careful to avoid giving any information about it. To be
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