(
RESOLUTION.)
JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT.
MEDICAL.
Calcutta, the 9th October 1872.
READ—
A letter No. 583, of the 23rd August 1872, from the Inspector-General of Hospitals, Indian
Medical Department, submitting the reports and returns of vaccination in the Lower
Provinces for the year ending 31st March 1872.
1. PARAS. 2-4.—The total number of persons vaccinated during the
year was 375,281 against 348,309 in the year preceding, giving a total increase
of 26,972. In the metropolitan circles, however, there was an absolute decrease
of 48,603. The increase was chiefly in the Darjeeling and Ranchi circles
(61,537 in all) and in dispensary vaccination (10,892). The average percentage
of primary cases returned as successful was 91.51, or 2.61 below the average of
1870-71. This has been caused principally by great falling off in the Darjeeling
circle, where the percentage was 85.09 as against 92.65 in the year before.
2. The annual return of operations has risen from 62,719 in 1862-63 to
375,281 last year; but, as the Inspector-General points out, taking the
population of Bengal at 60 millions only (and it is more like 67) and the birth
rate at 30 per thousand, the vaccinations have only been about one-fifth of
the births. We are yet very far from having an efficient system of vaccination
over the country in general.
3. The cost of vaccination during the year was Us. 87,949-2-5, of which
only Rs. 8,968-9-4 came from local sources. The cost of each case said to be
successful was exactly 4 annas 2 pie.
4. PARAS 5-12.— Calcutta and Suburbs.—In Calcutta and the suburbs
20,535 persons were vaccinated against 19,287 in the previous year. But even
this small increase was almost entirely caused by the larger numbers passing
through the emigration depôts. In two of the three divisions of the town there
was a falling off. The work done by the Calcutta vaccinators contrasts most
unfavorably as regards quantity with that of the mofussil operators. The
town average is only 559 per man, and the cost is 14 annas 5½ pie in each
successful case. No satisfactory reason is assigned for this very poor outturn
of work. If vaccination in Calcutta has reached its maximum the operators
must be too many and should be reduced. The Inspector-General is requested
to report on the subject.
5. The success of the operations performed by the Calcutta vaccinators
is said to be all but uniform, and Dr. Charles, even in face of the fact that
vaccinations are to this day in an insufficient ratio to births, may well congra-
tulate himself on the diminished mortality from small-pox of late years, of
which there seems ample proof. From 1865 to 1872 there have been but 398
deaths from small-pox, or an average of 57 per annum,—exactly one-thirteenth
of the former rate of 734 per annum.
6. An interesting effort was made to ascertain the precise amount of
protection from small-pox now existing in Calcutta. So far as this comprehended
an attempt to get a vaccine census of adults or of households it must be said
to have failed; but the examination made of schools is particularly valuable as
showing a yearly increase in the proportion of vaccinated children and a
decrease in the number unprotected. Thus the proportion vaccinated was in
1869, 43.14 per cent., while in 1872 it was 61.63 per cent. The map represents
only in the roughest possible way the relative amounts of protection existing in
the city and suburbs. Seven localities are marked out as dangerous, one of
these being the lines of the body-guard at Ballygunj.
7. The registers of births in Calcutta are said to be kept in such a manner
as to give no assistance to vaccinators by precise indication of residence. The
Commissioner of Police will have his attention drawn to this. While it would,