4
According to rough calculations, out of 2,196 infants available for vaccination, 1,478
or 67 per cent. were vaccinated, as compared with 78 per cent. of the previous year.
There is no adequate reason why such a large percentage of children should
escape vaccination, and the low percentage shows the laxity with which in many
towns the compulsory Act is administered. This defect is receiving close attention,
and a more strict observance of the provisions of the Act is being insisted upon. A
substantial improvement may be expected in towns where Sanitary Inspectors have
been entrusted with the registration of births and deaths.
In the towns of Nowgong and Goalpara more than the theoretical number of
children available were vaccinated, but the small excess is easily explained by the
vaccination of older children who may have escaped notice in previous years and of
children who may have been born elsewhere or whose birth may have escaped regis-
tration, and the figures show that vaccination has been energetically carried out in
these towns as compared with those towns where the defect is considerable, e g.,
Habiganj. Ninety-five per cent. of available infants were vaccinated in the town
of Dibrugarh, in Dhubri 90 per cent., in Shillong 81 per cent., in Gauhati 71 per
cent., in Jorhat 62 per cent., in Golaghat 58 per cent., in Sibsagar 49 per cent., in
Tezpur 44 per cent., in Sylhet 40 per cent., in Silchar 32 per cent., and in Habiganj
16 per cent.
The preliminary notification for the extension of the Vaccination Act to the
towns of Karimganj, Sunamganj and Maulvi Bazar has been published in the Gazette
and the Act will probably be extended to these towns during the current year.
22. Vaccine Depôt.—During the year under report only 547,447 capillary tubes
were loaded, against 1,875,886 of the previous year, and 446,667 tubes were issued
to Assam districts, 111,919 to Eastern Bengal districts and 100 to Bombay. This
decrease is due to the discontinuance of the supply of lymph to the Eastern Bengal
districts from the 1st September 1914, as, since the reconstitution of the province
in 1912, this depôt had been supplying lymph to these districts. Three hundred and
ninety-four calves were inoculated during the year, and the average cost of manufactur-
ing lymph during the year was 4 01 pies per tube, excluding the cost of 1,800,000
capillary tubes which were purchased during the year. Of these only 55,000 were
used, and the balance will last for about another two years. Including the price of
tubes purchased, the average cost was 5.64 pies per tube.
Major L. B. Scott, I.M.S., was in charge of the depôt throughout the year.
13. Cost of the Department.—Including the charge on account of the Vaccine
Depôt the total cost of the Department for the year 1914-15 was Rs. 62,169-9-0, as
compared with Rs. 64,426-4-4 in the year 1913-14, showing a decrease of Rs. 2,256-11-4.
The decrease is due to a smaller expenditure in the dcp6t on account of the dis-
continuance of supply of the lymph to Eastern Bengal districts. The district
charges increased from Rs. 43,448-7-5 to Rs. 46,065-12-4, or Rs. 2,617-4-11 during
the year under report.
The amount of travelling allowance drawn, viz., Rs. 11,295-13-8, exceeds
that of the previous year by Rs. 2,194-15-2, while the amount of inspection
done is less by 12,644, which is a thoroughly unsatisfactory record of work in general.
The district of Cachar is responsible for an increase of Rs. 1,200 over the travelling
allowance of the previous year, while the number of inspections performed has
increased by 250 only. It may be noted that the amount of travelling allowance
drawn in this district even last year was sufficiently large to attract attention, and
an explantion was asked from the Civil Surgeon, who reported that he considered
the conduct of the Vaccination Inspecting Staff to have been unsatisfactory. Owing
to the transfer of the Civil Surgeon during the working season, the matter appears
to have escaped attention. A scrutiny of the travelling allowance bills of the
Inspector and Sub-Inspector shows that this large amount has been drawn by the
practice of doing daily tours of over 20 miles to and from headquaters which indicates
that their tours have been made primarily with the object of drawing mileage and
not for inspecting vaccination. The Sub-Inspector in this district is now under
suspension pending the result of a criminal charge. A thorough enquiry into the
vaccination arrangements in this district, in which the Deputy Sanitary Commissioner
came across several cases of falsification of registers by vaccinators, will be ordered.
In the district of Sylhet there has been since 1912-13 a progressive diminution in
the number of vaccination operations inspected, the figures being 69,266 inspections
in that year, as against 53,769 in the year under review, whereas the amount of travel-
ling allowance drawn has increased by Rs. 419. This appears to indicate a diminu-
tion in the amount of supervision which is being exercised over the work of the