Resolution on the Vaccination Report in Assam for
the year 1881.
Extract from the Proceedings of the Chief Commissioner of Assam, in the General
Department, No. 4,450, dated Shillong, the 17th August 1882.
READ—
The Annual Vaccination Report of the Province for 1881-82.
THE Vaccination Report, which is due on the 1st July, was received in the Secretariat
on the 21st of that month: this is the first year since 1875 in which it has been sub-
mitted in print. The importance of the subject, and the advantage of diffusing through-
out the Province a knowledge of the work done in each district, and so arousing a healthy
emulation, induced the Chief Commissioner to authorise the publication of the record
of the year's operations, which had previously, to save expense, been submitted to the
Government of India in manuscript.
Total number of vaccinations.
2. The tale of vaccinations performed and recorded in the report during the year is
40,309, against 24,175 in 1880-81. This total not only
exceeds that of the previous year by 66.7 per cent., but is in
excess of the number performed in any former year in the Province. Of the total,
39,128 were primary and 1,181 secondary vaccinations. Besides these, 5,102 vaccinations
were performed by private practitioners on tea-gardens.
Agency employed.
3. The agency by which this work was done is this year recorded for the first time
in detail. In previous reports, though the work of ex¬
inoculators and paid vaccinators is separately shown, the
operations performed by others are not entered separately against each class. The following
are the comparative figures so far as they can be given :—
Paid Vaccinators ....................
Ex-inoculators ........................
Civil Surgeons ....................
Hospital Assistants ....................
1880-81.
No.
17
58
12
34
Total ............
Operations.
13,221
8,665
2,289
24,175
1881-82.
No.
36
96
12
134
Operations.
19,388
16,172
1,146
3,603
40,309
Average to each Operator.
1880-81.
777.7
149.4
49.7
1881-82.
538.5
168.4
95.5
105.9
Though the table above shows a large increase in the total outturn of work, the
increase has not been altogether commensurate with the increase made in the vaccinating
staff. The work performed by Civil Surgeons and Hospital-Assistants has indeed more
than doubled, and the greater activity shown by these officers during the past year is
very creditable to them. But although 36 paid vaccinators (31 paid by Provincial and
5 by Municipal funds) were entertained in 1881-82, against 17 in 1880-81, the average
number of vaccinations performed has sunk from 777.7 a head to 538.5. The addition
of 13 vaccinators and 1 Superintendent to the Provincial vaccinating staff was proposed
by Dr. Clarke on the 12th October last, and sanctioned by the Chief Commissioner on the
28th idem: besides these, an extra man was sanctioned for Golághát in April last, making
14 in all, besides the Superintendent. The 5 municipal vaccinators were all apparently
entertained for the first time in 1881-82 : one is employed at Gauháti, one at Sibságar,
one at Jorhát, and two in Sylhet. Of the increase of 13 vaccinators, 4, with a Superin-
tendent, were sanctioned for Sylhet by the Chief Commissioner on the assurance given by
the late Civil Surgeon that he would interest himself specially in their work during the
past season. The measure was, however, a complete failure. Dr. Mathew was unable
to procure from Bengal a Superintendent of Vaccination on the pay offered (Rs. 25); and,
although he entertained the 4 additional vaccinators sanctioned, they did little or no
work, and were discharged after a month and a half. The Civil Surgeon writes—
" I have spared no exertion in endeavouring to get the work fairly started, going myself day after
day into the villages where I had stationed the vaccinators; but I have found the people impossible to
conciliate. I have had rather a large experience of vaccination, and never met with such opposition as
I had to encounter within a few miles of Sylhet."
The difficulty of inducing the natives of this district to submit to vaccination is also
noticed by the Sub-divisional Officer of Sunámganj, a Kulin Brahman himself, who took
much interest in the work, and frequently accompanied the vaccinator in his search for