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him, should the loss of life resulting from his practising as an inoculator, render such a
measure necessary. For the purpose of being registered, he might be required to appear
annually at the Police Station nearest to the villages in which he proposes to work, and have
his name enrolled on a Register kept for this purpose, making known his habitual place of
residence to the Police; his personal description and recognizable marks being noted at the
same time, so that he might less readily evade pursuit, if he did not comply with the law.
This registration would involve little else than the necessity for supplying Returns of
his operations with their results. Probably in after-years the mere statement that he had inocu-
lated so many people, of whom so many had died, would suffice; but for the present it seems
in the highest degree desirable that he should be made to provide a nominal return of all
cases, so that such might be checked, in every instance in which the necessity arose, and such
deception as unreported deaths be rendered more difficult. Many of the inoculators cannot
write, but this objection loses much of its weight, when we consider that most of them being
Brahmins or Acharjees, have only to ask any Sudra in the village, to do them such a service
as filling in a return, to have it performed at once, while Mallees and Coomars are' also very
favorably circumstanced in this respect.
Responsibilities of Head men, Zemindar's Agents,
and Chowkeedars.
26. The head man of each village, the Mundalls, Putwarrees, or similar persons where
such can be found, and the Zemindar's Agents might
be held responsible for this return being correct. To
insist on their being personally responsible for every
name and figure would prove a burden to them, but in the matter of an unreported death,
they might be held liable to a heavy fine, as in these small village communities they are
always personally cognisant of such occurrences, and nothing but deliberate intention to
deceive could lead to such false reports on their part.
In rural districts the same agency should be held responsible that every case of small-
pox as well as of deaths resulting therefrom, occurring in the village within two months of
the inoculation being practised, should be reported to the Police through the village Chowkee-
dars; and in Towns, the Municipality or Punchayet might be held responsible for this duty.
In this way the danger of contagion may soon be correctly estimated, and data will be available
for preparing any further rules that may be required.
Returns to be collected, and abstracts prepared,
and reviewed.
27. The nominal returns collected at the Police Stations might be forwarded in abstract,
to the District Officers, who might be requested to
forward them all when collected to the Commissioner
of the Division, together with a general summary of
the results reported in the whole District. The Commissioner might deal in the same way
with the general summaries collected from the several Districts; and when the reports from
each Division had been received, they might be compiled in the Bengal Office. When so
prepared, if submitted to the Head of the Medical Department, to the Sanitary Commissioner
for Bengal, to the Superintendent-General of Vaccination, or any other Officer, on whose
judgment, and personal familiarity with detail, the Government are prepared to place
confidence, a mass of material, more or less fitted to guide to a more perfect appreciation of
the exact advantages and drawbacks connected with the practice of small-pox inoculation in
Bengal, would be available for analysis and criticism.
Value of data so procured.
28. It is not pretended that such a document would be reliable in the sense of very
strict scientific accuracy. Negligence, fraud, and
other causes, might very possibly combine to prevent
it from being a trustworthy record, in this respect.
With the aid, however, of an intelligent criticism, much error would be excluded, and
subsequent enquiries on any reports, which seemed suspicious, would assist in still further
narrowing the risks of mistake. A record would thus be provided on a basis of a sufficiently
trustworthy nature, to guide to further action in a matter so important and at the same time
so difficult.
Results to be expected from such registration.
29. It will thus be seen that the proposed amount of regulation of the inoculation taking
place in Bengal, will serve on the one hand to ensure
caution on the part of the operators, while it will
also serve to collect statistical information bearing on the general subject. While it is not
pretended that either indication will be fulfilled in a very perfect or absolute manner, yet it
may confidently be affirmed that very satisfactory results will be obtained, which will well
repay the trouble involved in the measure.