70
ABSTRACTS OF REPORTS OF CIVIL SURGEONS.
inoculators encouraged and assisted, the Civil Surgeon is sanguine that vaccin-
ation might be generally introduced. He gives the following statistics of
protection:—
Vaccine census.
Class of persons
examined.
Jail
...
...
Dispensary ...
Number
examined.
234
225
Inocu-
lated.
88
90
Per cent. of
total
examined.
37.6
40
Vaccinated.
31
33
Per cent. of
total
examined.
13.24
14.66
Had
small-
pox.
71
66
Percent. of
total
examined.
30.34
29.33
Unpro-
tected.
44
36
Per cent. of
total
examined.
18.8
16
BHAUGULPORE DIVISION.
Monghyr
Proceedings
of
trained inocula-
tors.
Monghyr.—Dr. Mathew reports that there were three vaccinators employed
in the district during the season—two paid by the Monghyr Municipality, and
one by the Jumalpore Municipality. They work within municipal limits; but
the inhabitants of the town are either callous or positively opposed to vaccination,
and it is difficult to get satisfactory or systematic work done. The hospital
assistants at Jamooee and Kurruckpore performed a few operations. With
regard to inoculation, Dr. Mathew reports that it is not practised to any extent
in the district, and the proceedings of the trained inoculators are described as
follows :—
Head money given
to them.
System and super-
vision necessary.
"As has been the custom for several years, the training of inoculators to perform
vaccination is still kept up, and during the year there were 24 added to the list, making a total
of 120 enrolled. These men are instructed how to vaccinate, receive a supply of lymph
and a perwannah from the police authorities, but they are otherwise as yet under no control.
In fact it would be difficult to claim any control over them, as there are no funds to pay them.
The Government grants Rs. 20 per month for six months, and this sum, so far as it goes, is
distributed among the inoculators as head-money for every successful case. Each man keeps a
roll of his cases and brings back with bim specimen crusts at the end of the season The head-
money, which has recently fallen to an almost nominal sum in consequence of the increased
number of inoculators, is in my opinion the least inducement to these men to practise
vaccination. They do so because the notion has got abroad that inoculation is either prohibited
or looked upon with extreme disfavour by the authorities, and because they receive a
perwannah which gives them a certain status. If it were not for these inducements, I believe the
plan would never have been so successful as it has been found to be. The men receive of
course such fees as they arrange for from their clients. What is chiefly to be said in favour
of this system is, that it helps to wean the people from relying upon inoculation, and that it
lessens the chances of the spread of small-pox ; but the men work in no organized method, and
such work as they do individually is, as will be seen from the return, little, the average
being 98 cases each; besides, they do not commence until half the vaccinating season is over.
I should be glad if it were possible that they could be made to work on some definite plan.
Before the past season commenced, I made an effort in this direction by sending a notice to
all whose places of residence were known, that they must come in for lymph and commence
operations in November. Very few attended to the summons, the majority appearing late in
the season as usual. So far as thorough vaccination goes, if one-fifth of the number at
present enrolled could be taken into pay and get to work over a fixed area, the results would
be more exact and satisfactory in every way than they are now.
Small-pox
" The mortuary registers of the district return but 49 deaths from small-pox during
the year ending 31st December 1871, representing a mortality according to the estimated
population of under 1 to every 16,000 inhabitants, commencing with two deaths in
March ; the disease appears in the returns of the district for all the following months, except
September. The heaviest mortality was in May, when there were 15 deaths, and the lightest
was in November and December,—one casuality in each month.
" In the town of Monghyr the disease caused 10 deaths in the months of April, May,
and July, of which 6 occurred in the last-mentioned month, and does not appear again in the
returns of the year. So far as I can learn, small-pox appears regularly every year in the
month of April in the district and town, but for some years it has not raged epidemically.
During the year under report the outbreak was altogether sporadic, and the type of the
disease mild ; at 4 out of the 12 mortuary registration stations of the district no death
was returned from small-pox during the year.
Vaccine census.
" 9. I append returns in the prescribed form of the result of an examination made of the
inmates of the jail and of the pupils of the zillah school, with a view to determining how
far they are protected from small-pox. The returns represent on a small scale two different