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Department for the first time) paid vaccinators operated: in the rest of
the province licensed vaccinators were at work. The general plan of work
was for the individual vaccinator to take up as fully as possible that portion of
his area left over from the previous year, so that the vaccination of each area
might, in this way, be more or less completed every two years.
Difficulty in extending vaccina-
tion.
14. Increased difficulties were felt during the year under report in
extending vaccination owing to a growing feeling
of opposition among the people, as they learnt
that they were not bound by law to accept it,
and a reluctance to pay the vaccinator's fees. As a remedy for these evils
I advocated the extension of compulsory vaccination to rural areas throughout
Bengal, and the passing of a special enactment enabling vaccinators' fees to be
recovered if there was no law existing under which this could be done. The
Government of Bengal, however, considered that the true solution of the
difficulty was to be found in a thorough reorganization of the Vaccination
Department on the decentralization principle, which has been carried out since
the close of the year under review.
Reorganization of the Vacci-
nation Department.
15. Under the old scheme Bengal was divided for vaccination purposes
into six circles, each being in charge of a Superin-
tendent of Vaccination, who was also Deputy
Sanitary Commissioner. Three of the Superin-
tendents were Covenanted Medical Officers, two were Assistant Surgeons, and
one was an Apothecary of the Subordinate Medical Department. They were
assisted in the work of inspection by thirteen Deputy Superintendents of Vacci-
nation, eleven of whom were Assistant Surgeons, while two had undergone no
regular medical training. Under the Deputy Superintendents, again, were 116
Inspectors of Vaccination, whose pay for the most part varied from Rs. 20 to
Rs. 50, while a few got Rs. 15 or Rs. 16 a month. Under the new scheme
all the Deputy Superintendents and three of the six Superintendents or Deputy
Sanitary Commissioners have been abolished, and the executive supervision
of the work of vaccination has been transferred to Civil Surgeons, who
for this purpose are in future to be ex-officio Superintendents of Vaccination
in their respective districts, acting under the orders of, and standing in the
same relation as the former Superintendent of Vaccination to, the Sanitary
Commissioner, who continues to be the head of the department. Each Civil
Surgeon under the new scheme has been allowed a District Inspector, whose
pay ranges according to grade from Rs. 30 to Rs. 40 a month, with a fixed
travelling allowance of Rs. 10 and as many Sub-Inspectors on Rs. 25 a
month as there are subdivisions in the district to help him in supervising the
work of vaccination. The three Deputy Sanitary Commissioners who have
been retained under the new scheme are also to assist in the work of vaccina-
tion, their duties being so arranged as not to conflict with those of the Civil
Surgeons. Three revenue divisions have been allotted to each Deputy Sanitary
Commissioner, who is to inspect thoroughly at least one division a year in
addition to his regular sanitary duties, which have also been increased.
Lymph.
16. As usual, vaccination was principally carried on during the year under
report by means of human lymph. Operations were
started with bovine lymph supplied from the Animal
Vaccination Depôt in Calcutta, after which the virus was kept up by arm-to-
arm vaccination, supplemented from time to time with stored lymph in tubes.
Animal Vaccination Depôt at
Calcutta.
17. Since the submission of my last annual vaccination report a great
change for the better has taken place in the work-
ing of the Central Animal Vaccination Depôt in
Calcutta, from which good and reliable lymph is
now turned out in large quantities. The improved method of extraction and
preservation is based on the suggestions contained in the pamphlet on the
subject by the late Surgeon-Major A. Barclay and the recommendations of
Dr. King of the Madras Sanitary Department, and was carried out under my
personal directions by Assistant Surgeon Umesh Chunder Ghose, one of the
Deputy Superintendents of Vaccination attached to the Metropolitan Circle,
to whom credit is due for the able manner in which he carried out instructions.
In addition to pure calf lymph, which was always successful when used within
24 hours after extraction, glycerised and lanoline lymph were prepared in the