4
CALCUTTA AND ITS SUBURBS.
pitiated. This year a marked advance has been made among them, numbers having sent
for the vaccinators to come to their homes. The superintedent of this part of the town,
Baboo Kallidoss Bose deserves great credit for the way in which he brought about this
result. The recusants seem to have become impressed with the idea that further resistance
was unprofitable, as by watching the progress of events year by year, they found various
members of their families vaccinated by one artifice or another. They seem to have arrived
at the conclusion that it was advisable to purchase peace by submission rather than be
constantly subjected to the worry of unexpected visits from the vaccinators. As they have
been gradually led up to the result, and the action they have this year taken has been
purely voluntary, there is fair ground for believing that no real difficulty will ever again
arise, though among the class to which they belong, it will never be a very easy matter
to have a large body under complete control.
The Marrowarries.
The third success this year achieved has perhaps been the most important one in
reality, though, if judged of by the small numbers vaccinated, it would seem as if only
a small matter had been accomplished. The large and populous part of the town, known
as Burra bazaar, has this year for the first time had any impression made on it. It is
occupied by heterogenous classes of up-country men. Many of them are wealthy, most
of them are shrewd and intelligent in business, but retaining the narrowest bigotry of
their native country, and are little influenced by the enlightenment and education of
those around them. They have hitherto failed us in our attempts to introduce vaccina-
tion among them, and have been much assisted in their opposition by an impenetrable
barrier which surrounded them, owing to our not being able to obtain information to guide
us in reaching their households.
This year a fortunate circumstance has placed us much more favorably. A very intelligent
member of this community was pursuaded by a friend of mine to introduce vaccination
into his family. Such a chance was one I had long been on the look-out for, and the
occasion was not to be lost. Every endeavour was made to secure his friendship, and he
was induced to give us information about others, which has aided us in working so as to
secure vaccination being this year introduced into some of their houses, and has opened
the way for us to push vaccination in this part of the town in a way we could never do
before.
Our method of working is rather inquisitorial, but without discovering the weak points of
each individual of the class, it is impossible to assail him successfully, for each family seems
to be independent of those around, the example of one seeming to have little influence on
another. One has to be treated in one way, one in another. One can only be reached through
some potent friend, another can only have his own feelings on the subject over-ridden by
the landlord of his house. A considerable number will listen to no arguments but those
addressed to them by the business firms with whom they hold important relations. To
study thus how individuals can be best reached, involves no little labour, and having once
got the information necessary, to go and make an ally in the necessary quarter requires so
much time that only the emergency calling for it justifies such an expenditure. During the
entire season only 12 houses in the Burra bazaar have had vaccination introduced into them
and only 19 individuals have been vaccinated. As before indicated, the result, though small
numerically, is a very important one. To obtain the necessary information with which alone
we can work successfully, this nucleus will serve as an important depôt from which in
succeeding years the whole community will be overtaken as soon as their assailable position
can be discovered.
It has so been arranged, that representatives of all classes have been vaccinated. The
nineteen vaccinations were performed in twelve families, seven Brahmins, eight Khetries
two Banias and two Marrowaries having been protected.
In connection with this subject it may be briefly mentioned that in the south division
of the town and suburbs, vaccination has this year been introduced into 267 houses where it
was not in practice before. In the majority of these no form of protection from small-pox
had ever been employed before, the owners proclaiming themselves " itcha," and trusting
entirely to the good-will of their goddess. In some of these cases great pains had to be
taken to introduce vaccination ; in one instance after repeatedly failing for seven years, the
superintendent arranged that I should go down and assist at the vaccination. Ten chil-
dren were vaccinated before me on this occasion, and one of them was drowned in a tank on
the following morning, and this circumstance has been pointedly brought forward as a work
of the vengeance of Shittallah, and further vaccination in that house brought to a standstill
on account of this calamity. The father of several of these children is highly intelligent
and talks English fluently. The superintendent of the division, Baboo Kassie Chunder Dutt,
has been very zealous in his endeavours to arrive at the result above reported.