Precedings of the Honorable the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, in the Home Department, No. 2877,
dated 19th July 1877.
Read—
Report on Vaccine Operations in the Punjab for the year 1877.
RESOLUTION.—As this report is the first submitted for the calendar
year in accordance with the orders of Her Majesty's Secretary of State, former
reports having been submitted for the official year, it has been deemed conve-
nient to include in it the work of the first three months of 1876, already in-
corporated with the previous report of 1875-76, to render it a complete record
of the operations of the entire year.
2. The results reported cannot be considered altogether satisfactory, more
especially with reference to the work done by the provincial establishments,
for there is no further decrease compared with the numbers operated on during
the official year 1875-76, which were also much below those of the previous
year 1874-75.
The total number of vaccinations during these years was as follows :—
1874-75 ...
1875-76 ...
1876 ...
By Provincial
establishments.
3,74,615
3,00,506
2,85,068
Dispensary es-
tablishments.
39,568
37,552
40,960
Municipal
establishments.
29,388
21,291
22,388
Local Funds
establishments.
46,260
43,974
46,880
Native
States.
7,701
22,274
8,850
District
Hakims.
...
...
1,804
Total.
4,97,532
4,25,597
4,05,950
3. With reference to the section of the report treating of the work done
by the Dispensary and Municipal establishments, the Hon'ble the Lieutenant-
Governor remarks that the results at Umballa are very unsatisfactory, and he
cannot but think that the arrangements must be bad ; there seems no reason
why the objections to vaccination should not be overcome there as elsewhere
by proper management. How much may be done, where attention is really
given to the matter, is shown by the good results reported at Ludhiana, where
the interest taken by the Hospital Assistant in the cause of vaccination is
stated to have almost freed the town from small-pox, while all around the
disease is terribly prevalent.
4. The Lieutenant-Governor is glad to observe that with the employment
of Hakims in Shahpur, vaccination was becoming more popular in the district.
5. With reference to the remarks on the work done at Gurgaon, it is im-
portant that every care should be taken to ensure the submission of accurate
returns; the Civil Surgeon will accordingly be instructed to make tours
during the vaccination season, and to test by personal inspection the correct-
ness of the returns prepared.
6. It is stated that the reason for the decrease in the work done by the
Provincial establishments, which occurred during the early months of the
year, was given in the previous report. In that report it was explained that
the decrease was due to the great prevalence of fever and other diseases which
prevailed in the early part of the cold season. Such being the case, the re-
turns of 1876 could hardly have been affected by such a cause. Moreover, it
appears from the weekly Sanitary returns that the year opened with a great
improvement in the districts previously most unhealthy, and early in January
it was reported that the province was fairly healthy. Under these circum-
stances the decrease in the number of persons vaccinated by the Provincial
establishments has not, in His Honor's opinion, been correctly explained.
The report of the work done in the Native States of Kashmir, Mandi, and
of the Simla Hills, seems to show favorable results.
ORDERED that the Report be printed with the remarks of the Hon'ble
the Lieutenant-Governor, and circulated for general information.
By order, &c.,
LEPEL GRIFFIN,
Officiating Secretary to Government, Punjab.