24
DARJEELING CIRCLE.
to be acquainted with, was that the Civil Surgeon, during an epidemic of small-
pox in the rainy season, had vaccinated two men who had afterwards got small-
pox and died.
The gang, as before mentioned, had to be removed into Rajshahye in March.
With it in other districts where vaccination is more known, much better
results could have been obtained. Each man operated on 842.33 persons, with
an average of success of 93.57 per cent.
Number of oper-
ations.
Cause of decrease
in success.
10. Number and character of operations.—Though I think the number of
persons operated on, viz. 2,482.42 for each vaccinator, an increase from last
season of 294.31 per man, will be held satisfactory, the percentage of success,
87.7, of cases is disappointing. When I point out that extensive operations
were carried on in April, May, and June in Rungpore, Dinagepore, Bograh,
and Rajshahye, as well as in the Darjeeling hills, and in Rungpore, Dinagepore,
and Rajshahye in July, and in Rungpore and Dinagepore in August, with a
percentage of success gradually falling from 71.55 in April to 51.39 in August,
it will be understood how much the average of the cold season's operations is
reduced; besides, the cases in which only one vesicle was produced have been
put in the column " unsuccessful." This I find is necessary, as if one vesicle is
accepted as sufficient, careless vaccinators content themselves with producing it
and no more.
Arm-to-arm vaccination was further introduced during the late cold season,
and its use is gradually becoming more general. It is completely established
in Bograh.
Cost of each case.
The expense of each successful case was 2 annas and 10 pie against 3
annas and 6 pie for the year 1870-71, a reduction of 8 pie per successful case.
Inspection.
Objections to veri-
fying every case.
11. Inspections.—My tour began on the 1st November 1871 and ended on the
6th April 1872. Instructions reached me on the 8th January 1872 to submit a
report of the number of cases inspected. From that date to 6th April I inspected
rolls of 10,253 persons, of whom 9,604 were seen, 649 being absent, giving a
percentage of 93.76 cases verified out of the village rolls examined. I have
not called upon the Deputy Superintendent for a return of the number verified
by him, but by next season I trust he will have sufficient experience to be able
to afford valuable assistance. The native superintendents are being instructed
as I meet them in the method of reporting all cases verified. Desirous of
meeting the views of the Inspector-General of Hospitals as expressed in para-
graph 8 of his No. 641, of 28th September 1871, to the Secretary to the Govern-
ment of Bengal, I have since the 1st January verified in the village roll every
case seen, but I regret to be obliged to record that my inspections have been
greatly crippled by the adoption of this plan, the excellence of which is obvious
where vaccinators are massed and operations carried on systematically. Where
vaccinators are, however, scattered and constantly being moved on account of
small-pox, the inspection of recent cases to establish the quality of the lymph in
use, the strict examination of a few returns, enough to ascertain the general
accuracy of the whole, and a visit to every village in which operations have
been performed, with an examination of those vaccinated persons who are on
the spot, affords me a much better idea of the quality and extent of each man's
operations than slowly collecting all the cases in every village visited, many of
the people being at considerable distances in the fields, and many of the women
only produced after much persuasion and delay. As it is impossible for me,
under the method desired by the Inspector-General, to visit more than one village
in six, I fail to become acquainted with the extent of country protected,
and whether villages stated to be protected really are so. I can only inspect
about fifteen days out of a month, the other fifteen being spent in marching.
In Rungpore I found that I had to make three marches to see ten operations of
one man, and that having done so, seven days were spent in marching before I
reached another in Julpigoree. Often the vaccinators are in such inaccessible
places that the best part of the day is occupied in reaching them, picking my way
across country over rivers, khalls, bheels, and the many obstacles to be met with