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towns of the province with the exception of those
noted in the margin, to which it should be extended
at an early date. It has also been extended to the
rural areas in the districts of Rungpur and portions
of the Sonthal Pergunnahs, Tipperah and Bhagulpur, where, however, it is only
nominally in force.
Sonamukhi.
Nattore.
Cox's Bazar.
Kissenganj.
Lohardugga.
Chyebassa.
Jhaldah.
Raghunathpur.
Lymph.
As usual the work of the year was started throughout the province in the
month of September with bovine lymph supplied
from the Animal Vaccination Depôt in Calcutta,
supplemented by supplies from England and from the hills. The virus thus
started is kept up by arm-to-arm vaccination, stored lymph in tubes being also
employed. The use of crusts or scabs is prohibited. The demand for bovine
lymph is fast increasing. When used direct from the calf it is invariably success-
ful, but when supplied in tubes the experience of the year under report shows
that it almost invariably failed. The Superintendent of the Metropolitan
Circle, who is in charge of the Central Animal Vaccination Depôt , attributes
this unsatisfactory result to the heat of the plains and to delay on the part of
local officers in using the lymph ; but it has been brought to my notice that even
when the lymph was used immediately on its receipt in the cold weather it failed—
a result which I can only ascribe to carelessness in the extraction and storage of
it in the Central Depôt , for which the Superintendent of Vaccination,
Metropolitan Circle, is mainly responsible. He appears neither to have exercised
any supervision in this respect, nor to have conducted any experiments during
the year under report with the view of discovering a method for the preserva-
tion of lymph in the plains. I am again compelled to remark that his whole
management of the Animal Vaccination Depôt, which is an important part
of his duties, has been extremely lax and unsatisfactory. During the year
under report Dr. King of the Madras Sanitary Department discovered a method
of preserving animal lymph by the admixture of a preparation called lanoline
with it, and sent this Department some lymph so preserved for experimental trial,
the result of which was on the whole very satisfactory, although used a consider-
able time (from three weeks to a month) after its storage.
Proposed Animal Vaccination
depôt at Darjiling.
I regret to have to report that the Animal Vaccination depôt at
Darjiling, which it is proposed to establish in
addition to the one. in Calcutta, has not yet been
started, owing chiefly to the difficulty in getting
a suitable place for it in Darjiling removed from bazars and crowded localities,
and yet within easy reach for purposes of supervision and supplies. The site
selected last year had to be abandoned on account of the excessive cost of
acquiring it, and it is just as well, as it now appears that the proposed extension
of the Darjiling-Himalayan Railway will pass through the centre of the
property it was proposed to acquire, which will thus render it quite unsuitable for
an animal vaccination depôt . I have since selected another site on the
northern base of the Senchal Hill a little distance out of the station of Darjiling
but easy of access, as the railway passes within half a mile of it. As soon as the
sanction of Government, which I have already asked for, is received to this site,
and the Public Works Department have erected the necessary buildings which,
I understand, are to be of the cheapest description compatible with durability, the
Superintendent of Vaccination, Darjiling Circle, will lose no time in getting the
depôt into working order. It is desirable that the Public Works Department
should be asked to erect the buildings as soon as possible, as the working season
is approaching, and I should like to have the depôt in working order before then,
so as to be able to supply the plains with good animal lymph from the hills.
Attitude of the people towards
Vaccination.
I have nothing to add to the remarks made in last year's report under this
heading, except that the need for the extension of
the compulsory law to rural areas is all the greater.
The people have come to learn that vaccination is
optional in rural areas, and the result is that in nearly every village there are
families who habitually refuse vaccination, either openly or covertly, by hiding
away their children during the visit of the vaccinator. The Hindus, who most
resist vaccination, are the higher and wealthier classes, viz., Brahmins, Babhans,
Kayasths, Baniyas and Marwaris, and village mandals and zemindars. Maho-
medans as a class accept vaccination in most parts of Bengal more readily than