58
ABSTRACTS OF REPORTS OF CIVIL SURGEONS.
very well. The village priest also took an active part in the proceedings. The ceremonies
usually carried on in connection with small-pox inoculation were generally adhered to, and
the prejudices of the people, particularly with reference to the days that they considered
propitious, were invariably respected.
he outbreak pro-
bably
stamped
out.
" 18. Vaccination was carried on in 60 villages in this pergunnah, and I consider there
are ample grounds for the belief that a formidable outbreak of small-pox was controlled
and eventually stamped out. The vaccinators, both experienced operators, worked willingly
and well, and I regret that it is not in my power to offer them some reward for their exer-
tions. The scene of their labours was upwards of 35 miles from the sudder station, and
for upwards of four months they were subjected to many inconveniences and privations.
The vaccinators report that 64 people died from the disease to their knowledge, and it is to
be feared that many more deaths took place of which they never heard. In a village that
I visited I found 18 people suffering from small-pox, and of these four died. Vaccination
afforded very marked protection in this instance, notwithstanding that one of those who
were vaccinated was carried off by the disease. The operations were carried on in this
pergunnah up to the end of March, when the weather became suddenly hot, and the season's
work was brought to a close
Vaccination in Tum¬
look
"19. The return marked D shows the result of the attempt made to introduce
vaccination on the new system in connection with the Tumlook dispensary. The native
doctor reported that small-pox had broken out in a large village about two miles distant
from the town of Tumlook, on the 25th of January 1872, and that, in compliance with my
orders, he had secured the services of one of the local inoculators who was willing to be
taught the practice of vaccination. It was not practicable to send a vaccinated child so
great a distance, and I sent the native doctor a supply of fresh crusts, and ordered him
to commence operations at once. He reported in a few days that he had vaccinated some
300 children, and that a certain proportion of the operations were performed by the
inoculator under his superintendence. I was not able to visit the village until some
10 days after the children were vaccinated. I found seven cases of small-pox, two of which
were of the confluent variety. I also learned that four people had died from the disease;
but, fortunately, up to date none of those vaccinated had been attacked, nor were they
subsequently, and the further spread of the disease was efficiently checked.
" I vaccinated with my own hand some 30 boys whom I found in the Tumlook Govern-
ment school without any form of protection with lymph procured from the village above-
mentioned, all of which proved successful. Operations were afterwards carried on in three
other villages round Tumlook, and I think, on the whole, a successful start has been made
in this part of the country on the new system. The inoculator was partly paid from the
dispensary funds, and partly by the people.
Vaccination in Mid¬
napore.
Infants vaccinated
successfully at all
seasons
"20. Return marked E shows the number vaccinated in the town of Midnapore. In
the early paragraphs of this report I mentioned that the vaccinator's time was partly
taken up in looking after the work of the men operating in the villages surrounding the
station, and, consequently, the number of operations performed in the town were not nearly
so numerous as in other seasons. Small-pox attacked one family residing in the town
about the end of March. It was clearly imported from the district of Moorshedabad,
from whence a member of the family had recently returned, and where the disease was at
that time prevalent. The disease attacked four members of the same family, one of whom
died (a female,) who had neither been inoculated nor vaccinated. I visited the house and
had all the unprotected people vaccinated; but the weather was then very hot, and as the
character of the vesicles were not satisfactory, and as the disease fortunately did not spread,
the operations were discontinued. Infants, I find, can be vaccinated at all seasons of the
year successfully, but grown up children and adults, in fact, all those who are exposed to
the heat of the sun, should not be operated on after the first week in March in this district
under ordinary circumstances.
Vaccination at My¬
sadul.
" 21. I enclose a report from the sub-assistant surgeon in charge of the Mysadul
charitable dispensary. The difficulties to which he alludes are not peculiar to that quarter
of the district, but the real state of the case is, that, during the past cold weather, the sub-
assistant surgeon has been appointed to the medical charge of the Rajah's establishment,
and he has now but little time left for attending to work of this description. I only heard of
one instance of inoculation being attempted during the past year. It appears that an
inoculator from Subung commenced working at a place called Narainghur, a large
pergunnah some 16 miles to the south of the station. The vaccinator in whose ilaqua
the inoculator was attempting to work reported the matter to me, and a letter to the local
zemindar led to the prompt expulsion of the inoculator, of whom nothing more was heard.