Annual Reports.—
Triennial Report on Vaccination in the
Bombay Presidency for the years
1902-03, 1903-04 and 1904-05.
General Department.
Bombay Castle
No. 5532
5th October 1905.
Letter from the Sanitary Commissioner for the Government of Bombay, No. B.—2310,
dated the 11th August 1905—
Submitting the Triennial Report on Vaccination for the years 1902-03, 1903-04 and
1904-05.
Memorandum from the Sanitary Commissioner for the Government of Bombay,
No. 2312-B., dated the 11th August 1905.
Memorandum from the Surgeon General with the Government of Bombay, No. B.—2296,
dated the 31st August 1905: —
" Submitted.
" 2. The undersigned has the honour to state that the Sanitary Commissioner reports
that, as the report is a triennial one and deals with three years' figures, it has not been
possible to bring the text of the report within the limit prescribed without omitting such
information as it was necessary to give in detail."
RESOLUTION.—The number of primary vaccinations has, after five years,
again risen to over six lakhs, but the figure is still much less than that of 1899-1900.
The steady increase, however, of the past three years in the number of primary
operations is a result for which the Department deserves credit. It is noticeable
in every Registration District and in the Native States but less in Sind and the
Western Registration District than in the other three. The percentage of success
among known cases is also very high. The ratio in 1994-05 of vaccinations
performed to population is highest in Gujarat, 31 per 1,000, and lowest in the
Southern Registration District, 25.1 per mille, but with this must be considered
the mortality from plague, which has been heavier in this Registration District
than elsewhere in the Presidency. The epidemic affects the statistics in two ways.
It renders the work of the Department more difficult ; and owing to the severity
of the successive epidemics the population cannot have risen much above the
census figures. In the Southern Registration District the ratio in 1902-03 was
22.2 per mille. In Sind the ratio was 25 per mille in 1902-03 and in 1904-05, 27.3,
an increase hardly proportionate with the increase in population which must have
occurred since the last census. Re-vaccinations are few. In the last year they
were more numerous than usual owing to the prevalence of small-pox. The fewer
cases of small-pox during the triennium sufficiently account for the average of
re-vaccinations performed being considerably below that of the previous triennium.
It appears to His Excellency in Council unlikely that the number of re-vaccinations
will ever be much increased so long as those classes of the population who are able
to appreciate it do not take advantage of the protection it affords.
2. A comparison of the ratios of work done by Municipal and Local Fund
establishments shows that in 1904-05 the former vaccinated 30.1 per mille of the
population and the latter 27.6. For Local Fund areas the ratio was 29.7 in
Gujarat, 24.5 in the Southern Registration District and 26.5 in Sind. The difference
is due to the successive plague visitations in the Southern Registration District and
to the difficulty of dealing with the scattered population of Sind rural areas.
3. The figures for Bombay and Karachi Cities (paragraphs 41 and 42 of the
report) afford a curious comparison. In the latter the number of children vaccinated
nearly corresponds with the number available (births minus deaths) and with the
number which by a reference to the standard of 31 per mille ought to be available—
a result which speaks highly of registration and vaccination in Karachi.
In Bombay no deduction can be drawn, owing to the impossibility of ascertain-
ing even approximately the number of children available. It is not very satisfactory
that 2,400 unreported births should have been discovered by the Vaccination Depart-
ment; but there has been a regular and rapid increase in the births registered
in the City during past years, and an increase, but less rapid increase, in the
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