( 2 )
departmental agency; the exact ratio was 33 per cent. in 1882-83 and 32 per cent. in
1883-84. The number of inspections (25,090 against 18,021 in 1882-83) is very evenly
divided between Civil Surgeons and Native Superintendents (12,310 by the former, and
12,780 by the latter), but the results arrived at by these two classes of officers are widely
different, the former finding 85 per cent. of the operations successful, and the latter 95
per cent. Nearly half of the inspection work done by Native Superintendents was in the
district of Sylhet, where the percentage of successful cases is shown as 99.6. Work of
this kind is obviously untrustworthy, and suggests a doubt whether the inspecting officer
is really able to distinguish a successful operation from a failure.
Secondary operations.
6. Secondary operations were only 570 in number, all performed by Government
agency. The number returned as successful was 421, and
the proportion 73.8 per cent.
Vaccinating staff.
7. The agency by which the department worked in 1882-83 and 1883-84, and
the total number of operations performed by each class of
officers, are detailed in the following table:—
Civil Surgeons ..................
Assistant-Surgeons .........
Hospital-Assitants .........
Compounders ...............
Native Superintendents ...
Government Vaccinators...
Apprentices ...............
Municipal vaccinators ......
Local Fund
„
Honorary „ ......
Ex-inoculators ...............
Total ...
1882-83
Number of
operators.
12
32
5
2
35
Number of
operations.
2,330
......
4,175
857
443
27,286
Number of
operations
per head.
194
......
130
171
221
780
Ratio of
success
per cent.
85
......
85.7
84.5
80.1
90.4
1 No separate return.
4
16
4
48
158
1,300
9,007
9,466
54,864
325
450
197
347
89.5
90.8
91.2
89.9
1883-84
Number of
operators.
13
3
25
3
4
45
Number of
operations.
2,722
136
2,024
589
707
42,359
Number of
operations
per head.
209
45
81
196
177
941
Ratio of
success
per cent
82.2
83.7
82.3
90.7
93.2
91.9
1 No separate return.
6
20
51
170
1,487
15,219
13,114
78,357
248
761
257
461
88.8
90.8
93.9
91.4
Kámrúp ............
Sylhet ...............
Cachar ...............
Inspections.
416
281
418
Operations.
91
79
110
District.
Cacher .....................
Tezpur, Sadr ............
Goálpára ..................
Gáro Hills ..................
Sylhet ........................
Average
1,445
1,258
1,171
1,150
1,110
Two-thirds of the operations performed by Civil Surgeons are accounted for by Dr.
Whitwell at Dibrugarh (1,030 operations) and Dr. Campbell at Tezpur (892), and in
both these districts (especially in the former) the number of cases inspected by Civil Surgeons
also stands high. The Chief Commissioner does not wish to insist upon Civil Surgeons
personally taking a large share in the actual work of vaccination. An officer may
reasonably think that his time can more usefully be given to inspection. But either in
the one way or the other, or in both, he ought to show his interest in the work, and it is,
therefore, with regret that the Chief Commissioner notices the small number both of
operations and inspections recorded against Kámrúp, Sylhet,
and Cachar. Considering, too, how easily these two kinds of
work can be combined, the Chief Commissioner is surprised
that the return of vaccinations by Civil Surgeons is so low in almost all the districts, even
including those where inspection has been carried on with commendable energy. The-
Assistant-Surgeon at Jorhát is in medical charge of the station, and vaccinated 104
persons; the Assistant-Surgeons of Dhubri and Tezpur vaccinate incidentally in connection
with their proper work of looking after immigrant coolies. Hospital-Assistants show a
lower average this year than last year; by far the best example is the man at North
Lakhimpur, with 414 cases. Last year there was one Native Superintendent for Goálpára
and one for Sylhet: the latter district has now two, and one has been provided for Kámrúp
also. The unsatisfactory way in which these men do their inspection work has been
commented on already; the Goálpára officer has been the most rigid in his scrutiny,
rejecting 444 cases out of 3,949, but even he brings out so high a proportion of successful
operations as 88.75 per cent. Of the 707 vaccinations performed by Native Superinten-
dents themselves, 659 (93 per cent.) are said to have succeeded. Coming next to the
Government vaccinators, the average number of primary operations per man has
risen from 780 to 941 in 1883-84, and in five districts it
exceeds 1,100. The lowest average (Kohima excepted,
where special conditions prevail) is found in the sub-divisions
of Mangaldai, Golághát, and North Lakhimpur, a fact which
shows how much efficiency depends upon supervision. The Civil Surgeon of Tezpur, for
example, is able to work his vaccinators in the sadr up to an average of 1,253 operations
per man, but those of Mangaldai are less accessible to supervision, and the average there
is 393 only.