2
village to village. When a Civil Surgeon, as in the Drug District, inspected
an average of 15 villages a day, the people must be put to considerable trouble
in coming from their homes to the various centres through which he passes
and the fact that Chanda and Raipur, where this practice was specially
forbidden, show most progress in vaccination, shows that such a system is
unnecessary.
In inspecting vaccination work, it is neither necessary nor desirable that
the inspection should be limited to the work of the current year. Much good
can be done by inspecting schools and checking the proportion of boys
that are protected, by examining the children met in the village street
and seeing how many bear protective marks, and by examining the children
said to have been vaccinated in the previous year and ascertaining what has
become of those who are absent. In fact, the object to be aimed at is to carry
out vaccination with as little trouble to the people as possible, and to do every¬
thing to prevent its being unpopular.
3. Turning to towns, the Vaccination Act was in force in 48 Munici-
palities in the Central Provinces and in 13 in Berar, and it is only in these
61 towns that vaccination is compulsory. The Chief Commissioner regrets to
find that the number of children in these areas who escape vaccination is large,
and as an instance of this he notices that no less than 113 children in the Muni-
cipal Schools of the Wardha District were found to be unvaccinated. The duty
of enforcing the Vaccination Act rests with the Municipal Committees, and
the better enforcement of the Act is a matter requiring serious attention.
4. The system under which the lymph is prepared varied from district to
district. In some districts it is prepared at Head-quarters at a district depôt
more or less under supervision, while in others it is prepared by each vaccinator
in his Circle The preparation of an aseptic lymph of the proper strength is
a most important aid to successful and popular vaccination, and the experience
gained in the Buldana District, where a cent per cent success was obtained with
lymph imported from England, is, the Chief Commissioner believes, the
general experience when good lymph is used
In every other Province in
India it has been found desirable either to establish a central depôt for the
supply of lymph, or to arrange for its supply from the depôt of another Province,
and the Chief Commissioner is not satisfied with the arguments advanced
in favour of the present practice. He feels some doubt whether the sum of
Rs 10,000 a year said to be spent on the central depôt of the United Provinces
will not be found to include other items than the mere preparation of lymph, and
before he can accept the decision to continue the present system as the best,
the Sanitary Commissioner should examine that adopted in other Provinces
further. There is no doubt that the supply of a really pure lymph of standard
strength cannot be secured under the present system, and the increased cost
of a central depôt would probably be worth incurring if it did away with the risk
of septic lymph being used.
5. The transfer of the staff of vaccinators to the control of local bodies,
which was effected just before the beginning of the period now dealt with, is
reported to have been a success, and to have led local bodies to take an
increased interest in vaccination. Complaints are made in some of the District
Reports that the vaccination staff is underpaid and undermanned, and if so, it
rests with the local bodies to remedy these defects, and Civil Surgeons should
bring the matter to their notice.
ORDER—Ordered that a copy of this Resolution be submitted to the Gov-
ernment of India in the Department of Education, and that a copy be forwarded
to the Sanitary Commissioner, Central Provinces, for information and guidance;
also, that it be published in the Supplement to the Central Provinces Gazette.
R. P. COLOMB,
Second Secretary to the Chief Commissioner,
Central Provinces.
Govt. Press, Nagpur:—No. 1418, Civil Sectt.—27-10-11—320.