8
THE METROPOLITAN CIRCLES.
yet I have no desire to detract from the credit due to Deputy Superintendent Baboo Jadub
Chunder Ghose and his staff of vaccinators, who have placed this circle again first on the list.
In the three circles together there has been a slight falling off in the numbers vaccin-
ated— 140,149 in 1870-71, against 155,825 in 1869-70
8. Tours of the Superintendent.—My own inspections were conducted precisely as
they were last year, as mentioned in paragraphs 19 and '20 of my last annual report. I see
no reason for changing the mode of superintending. I beg to append a tabular return of
cases inspected by myself.
Seen after the 16th day ...
Ditto from 13th to 16th day ...
Ditto from 9th to 12th day ...
Ditto from 5th to 8th day ...
Ditto from 1st to 4th day ...
Total ...
Vaccinated in 4 points, of
which there were successful
4
15,923
2,251
3,079
2,895
...
24,148
3
125
13
25
77
...
240
2
30
5
9
25
...
69
1
6
2
3
10
...
21
Failed
27
9
13
12
...
61
Vaccinated in 2
points, of which
there were suc-
cessful
2
259
30
49
46
...
384
1
2
...
5
...
...
7
Failed.
1
......
......
1
......
2
Doubtful.
17
1
3
15
......
36
Sore-arms.
38
1
1
......
......
40
Compared with
register.
15,994
2,312
3,087
3,081
886
25,340
Total.
16,428
2,312
3,187
3,081
886
25,874
Absent.
2,272
134
119
194
71
2,790
Grand total.
18,700
2,446
3,306
3,275
937
28,664
* Seen too early to decide on the result.
The cases noted as having sore-arms are those in which either from violence or some
skin disease the vesicle had been so much injured and destroyed as to render it difficult or
impossible, at the time I saw the case, to decide on the success or otherwise of the operation.
I should feel disposed to include the cases which occur early amongst the doubtful cases,
thus raising this class from 36 to 38, and exclude the 38 cases after the sixteenth day from
the calculation, as, had they been seen earlier, the success of the operation might have been deter-
mined; the protective power of vaccinia is not annulled by injury after the sixteenth day.
Excluding these 38 cases and 866 seen from the first to the fourth day, we have,—number
vaccinated 24,970, number of points 99,094, cases successful 24,869, points successful 98,246,
percentage of successful cases 99.59, percentage of successful points 99.14. The percentage of
success in cases seen by me is 99 59, that in the general return hereto appended, 99.69—a
discrepancy so slight, that in my opinion the result of my own inspections proves the correctness
of the general return.
9. Reports of small-pox—Thirty reports of the outbreak of small-pox have been received
from the 1st of April 1870 to 31st March 1871. In 6 the disease was found to be chicken-
pox, and in 24 small-pox. In the 24 outbreaks of small-pox reported, 45 villages were
affected, and 208 persons were ascertained to have been attacked: of these 79 died, 125
recovered, and in 4 the result was not ascertained. In 7 villages vaccinations were
performed round the infected persons, and the spread of the disease was arrested; in 13
vaccination was not required, the villages being already protected by vaccination or inocula-
tion, and in 4 the people refused to take it. Thirteen of the villages were protected wholly
or partially by vaccination, 8 by inoculation, and 3 were unprotected. In 4 of the 24
reports received, the disease was traced to inoculation having been practised, in 11 cases to
contact with small-pox, and in 9 cases the origin of the disease could not be discovered.
10. Inoculation.—Inoculation still continues to be extensively practised in many parts
of the circles. In the portion of the 24-Pergunnahs assigned to the Deputy Superintendent
of the first circle, Baboo Ram Soonder Ghose, and his vaccinators, and in the portion of the
zillah Nuddea assigned to the Deputy Superintendent of the second circle, Baboo Buddy
Nath Brummoh, and his vaccinators, inoculators were busy even during last hot season,
and the consequence was there were but a few scattered villages in which the vaccinators
could work, and consequently the number of vaccinations this year is much less than last.
They also appeared in the villages, chiefly in the first circle, much earlier in the year than is
usual. Their custom is to inoculate chiefly in the month of Maugh, from the 15th February
to the 15th March; but this year, apparently fearing the loss of their vocation, they
commenced quite early in our vaccinating season.
If inoculation were prohibited throughout the Metropolitan circles, I believe the
opposition to vaccination would cease. The alternative would then be vaccination or the risk of
small-pox; now there is a third—inoculation : and amongst a people so tenacious of all that
* Includes 30 repetition cases.