CALCUTTA AND ITS SUBURBS.
5
Census returns.
I had hoped with the results of the census, to have been able to work out more satis-
factorily than has hitherto been possible the extent to which vaccination every year falls
short of the requirements of the population. On examining the figures supplied, however,
I do not judge them to be sufficient for my purpose. In working with them the fact, that
has been pointed out before, is very apparent, that the numbers every year vaccinated fall
short of what they should do, were all additions to the population protected from
small-pox. The other fact which was also known before, has also received abundant corrobo-
ration, and there is now no longer room for doubt that the birthrate of Calcutta is a much
smaller one than we should have been led to estimate it, by looking at statistics collected
in Europe. This last fact comes out most strongly, and without attaching too much weight
to figures to which exception might be taken, I conceive that the broad fact above stated,
admits of no reasonable doubt. This is a matter for just congratulation, as the progress
made in vaccinating Calcutta can now be viewed in a much more hopeful manner than it
could have been without such confirmation. Though there is still much further room
for progress, the numbers left every year unprotected are not so large as theoretical
reasoning would justify us in believing, but are more in accord with the results obtained
in examining the amount of protection actually found to exist among the community.
Cost of vaccination .
7. Cost of vaccination in Calcutta.—In the Government Resolution on the last annual
report, attention was directed to the cost of vaccination in Calcutta, and a report on the
subject called for.
of each successful
case
On first assuming charge of the department, I endeavoured to arrive at an approximate
estimate of the cost of each successful case in Calcutta, and represented to the Government
in my first special report that, I considered about one rupee would be a fair cost for a vaccin-
ation obtained in Calcutta, and that eight annas would represent a fair charge for those in the
city and suburbs combined.
Two circumstances have arisen to falsify to a certain extent the calculations I then made:
(1) in estimating the probable number of vaccinations, I took the birth-rate according to data
gathered from European standards, which, my experience since then has taught me, was quite
an incorrect assumption ; (2) I went on the supposition that emigration, which was being
actually carried on at the time, would continue, and that the numbers of emigrants vaccinated
by the department would contribute to lessen the cost of each vaccinated case. Since then
emigration has become much less, and consequently my expectations on this score
have not been realized.
Owing to the progess of events rendering it possible for me to lessen the expenses for
establishment, it has been so much reduced that for the year 1872-73, the expense for each
vaccination affording protection has been reduced below the estimate I have made in 1864.
Contrasted with the
Mofussil.
In the Government Resolution a comparison is made between the work of a vaccinator
in Calcutta and that of one in the Mofussil. The cost of a vaccination done in Calcutta
is also compared with the cost of one done in the country around. As a mere matter of
abstract calculation, I have nothing to urge why the comparison should not be made,
but when an implied slur is cast on the vaccinators' working in Calcutta, it becomes my
duty to draw attention to the circumstance that things which do not admit of compari-
son are being compared. The agencies influencing the cost, in either instance, are totally
different, and as no exact value of these agencies can be assigned in any case, it is perfectly
impossible from such a comparison to determine whether one vaccinator is more diligent
than another, or whether a superintendent is bestowing the amount of care which he ought.
With a certain number of children provided for him, and the virus for vaccinating
supplied, it takes, it is true, no longer to vaccinate 500 persons in a city than in a rural
tract.
In densely-populated districts, vaccination should be coeteris paribus cheaper than
among a scanty population. But on the other things being equal all depends; were it
not so, vaccination in Calcutta should be much cheaper than it is in any of the neighbour-
ing districts. Again it might be urged that, as vaccination has been so long practised in
Calcutta, and the people have been for many years under the influence of advanced edu-
cation, that they should now take readily to vaccination and not detain the vaccinators in
talking them over to submit to being protected. Experience, however, does not sanction
such modes of reasoning. On the contrary, all who have attempted to vaccinate in
Calcutta make the same complaints. The wealthy and intelligent who not only insist on
having their children vaccinated, but who have themselves and their parents before them
2