10
DARJEELING CIRCLE.
for four months only in addition to Dr. Charles's extra allowance of Rs. 300 for eight
months of the year. The decrease in numbers will also slightly affect the cost.
The whole of the operations have been performed from arm-to-arm with the following
exception. Nine capillary tubes of vaccine virus, received from England, were forwarded to
me by the Superintendent-General of Vaccination, Calcutta. I gave three of these to each of
the Deputy Superintendents, and requested them to vaccinate with this virus. Baboo Ram
Soonder Ghose vaccinated two children, and both failed. Baboo Buddy Nath Brummoh
vaccinated two children; one failed, and one was successful; but owing to the child being
absent at the time when the vesicles were at their maturity, no vaccinations could be made
from him : the new stock was therefore lost. Baboo Jadub Chundra Ghose vaccinated three
children, and failed in all cases.
15. Behaviour of the establishment.—I have again the pleasure to report favorably on
the behaviour of the establishment. The three Deputy Superintendents, Baboos Ram Soonder
Ghose, Buddy Nath Brummoh, and Jadub Chundra Ghose, continue to work with energy,
and show much tact in removing the prejudices of the people.
The head and ordinary vaccinators have also worked to my satisfaction.
The office establishment also perform their duties well and satisfactorily.
Report of the Darjeeling Circle of Vaccination by SURGEON R. LIDDERDALE, Superintendent of
Vaccination, for the year ending 31st March 1871.
I HAVE the honor to submit the annual returns of the Darjeeling circle of vaccination
for the year ending the 31st March 1871.
2. Darjeeling hills.—The return No. 1 shows a slight increase in the number of
operations performed in the Darjeeling hills by the three district vaccinators, but the per-
centage of success is, as usual, a very low one. Vaccination has great difficulties to contend
with among the population in these hills. The Lepchas and Bhúteahs wear thick, coarse
clothing, which frequently destroys the vesicle, and the Nepalese wear their jackets
so tight, that injury is hardly to be avoided. The last constitute the much larger proportion
of the labourers on tea gardens, and continue to work both at leaf-picking and leaf-rolling
after being vaccinated. The women are employed in leaf-gathering, so that the youngest
child is carried into the garden, and spends the day in the sun.
Infants are taken out in cradles and put down anywhere while the mothers are employed,
the only shade being that of a tea bush, which is generally so small as to afford little protection.
The Nepalese can hardly be reckoned as permanent residents in British Sikkim. They come
from Nepal in search of labour, and when they have amassed a little money, return again to
their homes. In this way vaccination continues to be new to a large part of the population,
and every season requires to have its advantages explained to fresh immigrants, whose preju-
dices and suspicions have to be overcome. Nepalese have a great dread of small-pox, and
know that it results from inoculation. They have the same fear of vaccination. A tea-planter
near Kurseong informed me that a gang of coolies was coming to him from Nepal; but before
arrival they heard that vaccination was being practised in his garden: they turned and
marched back into their own country. The Lepchas and Bhúteahs, being permanent residents,
are much less difficult to deal with. There was an outbreak of small-pox in the Dahug
Dooar of Bhútan in May 1870; but vaccination being promptly practised in the neighbour-
hood, it did not spread beyond the village first attacked, in which 21 deaths occurred,
out of a total of 38 cases. The origin of this outbreak could not be traced.
3. Julpigoree, Darjeeling Terai sub-division, and Western Dooars of Bhútan.—Though
there has been a slight increase in the number of vaccinations in these districts, the work
cannot be considered satisfactory. The sanction to entertain a native Superintendent, applied
for in April 1870, reached me on the 14th March 1871, one day before the close of the
vaccinating season. As the Deputy Superintendent was physically unfit, and the sub-assistant
surgeon appointed in his place new to the work, and from the time of joining, on the 28 th
January, up to the middle of March, had not succeeded in visiting the work of the four
men, supervision was entirely nominal, and the result of necessity inferior. One vaccinator,
Kristo Persad, I found on inquiry to be taking money from the people, and dismissed him at
once. The services were thus lost of an efficient vaccinator for a fault which would not
have occurred under proper supervision. There were three outbreaks of small-pox in the
Julpigoree district, and one in the Terai sub-division during the year. One occurred at