2
No. 1498 L., 28TH JULY 1899.
the year under report some of the operations performed in the previous year, the
work done by the Deputy Inspectors of Penukonda, Madanapalle, Pithápuram, Narasa-
raopet, Tiruvannámalai and Seérmádévi was particularly good, more than 80 per cent.
of the total number of operations having been verified by them. The District Medical
and Sanitary Officers inspected 32,960 cases against 31,138 in the previous year, the
percentage of verification to the total number of operations rising from 2.5 to 3.0.
The circumstances under which the Medical officers of Coimbatore and Vizagapatam
failed to verify any case should be explained. The Inspector of Vaccination and
Deputy Sanitary Commissioner was on other duty at Bombay or elsewhere for nearly
the whole of the year and was not therefore able to verify any cases.
4. Infantile Vaccination.—Excluding the figures relating to the cantonments of
Bangalore and Secunderabad, the total number of persons vaccinated during the year
was 31.2 per mille of the population against 35.5 in the previous year and the number
of children under one year successfully vaccinated was 280,354 against 328,515, being
29.6 per cent. of the births registered during the year against 36 per cent. in 1897-98.
Infantile vaccination continued to be unsatisfactory in Tanjore, South Canara,
Gódávari and Malabar. It was also bad in the Nilgiris and Ganjám, where there
was a retrogression as compared with the previous year. The special attention of the
Presidents of the District Boards concerned is drawn to the subject. As in the pre-
vious year, the best results were obtained in the districts of Madura and Bellary and in
the Municipalities of Madura, Salem, Ootacamund, Tiruppattúr and Chingleput, while
in the City of Madras, there was a considerable retrogression, only 70.9 per cent. of
the children born during the year having been successfully vaccinated against 81.8 per
cent. in the previous year. The work done in Kumbakónam, Dindigul, Karúr, Tanjore,
Walajapet, Srírangam, Rajahmundry and Chicacole was not satisfactory, the number
of children under one year successfully vaccinated being only between 50 and 60 per
cent. of the births, while in Berhampur and Cuddapah, the worst results were
achieved, no more than 36.7 and 27.7 per cent., respectively, of the children born having
been protected from small-pox. The Municipal Councils concerned are requested to
take steps to ensure better results in future. As compared with the previous year,
there was a decrease of over 30 per cent. in Chicacole, Bimlipatam, Dindigul, Calicut,
Adóni, Anakápalle and Cuddapah, which is attributed to (1) a reduction in the
number of children available for vaccination, (2) the plague inoculation scare, and
(3) deficiency in the staff of vaccinators. On the other hand, there was a satisfactory
increase in Erode (28.3), Cocanada (24.8) and Anantapur (24.3).
5. Agency Tracts.—The work of the Government vaccinators in the Agency
tracts of Ganjám, Vizagapatam and Gódávari again showed an improvement, the total
number of operations performed by them being 40,513 or 8,785 more than in the
previous year. The increase occurred chiefly in the Hill tracts of Ganjám and in the
Gunupur Circle of the Vizagapatam district, where the number of persons vaccinated
exceeded the previous year's figure by 6,345. The average number of operations per-
formed by each vaccinator in the Gunupur Circle showed a satisfactory increase, being
2,254 against 1,358 in 1897-98.
6. Local Fund areas.—There was a further decrease of 155,425 in the number of
operations performed in Local Fund areas and the average outturn of work for each
vaccinator also fell from 1,581 to 1,369. The decrease in the total number occurred
in all the districts except Malabar, Tanjore and Vizagapatam and was considerable in
Salem (28,501), South Arcot (23,993), North Arcot (23,844), Madura (14,596),
Cuddapah (14,245), Ganjám (11,384), Coimbatore (10,660) and Trichinopoly (10,256),
the short work being attributed chiefly to the plague inoculation scare. It is note-
worthy that there was a satisfactory increase in Vizagapatam where the heaviest fall
occurred in 1897-98. The average outturn of work for each vaccinator was highest
in Vizagapatam (2,071) and it was more than 1,500 cases in Chingleput, Madura,
South Arcot, South Canara, Tanjore and Tinnevelly. Compared with the pre-
vious year, there was a heavy fall from 2,160 to 1,145 in Trichinopoly, which was
due to the suspension of vaccination for some time in consequence of the plague in-
oculation scare. The quality of the work turned out showed a general decline, ten
districts having exhibited lower figures than in the previous year and the total pro-
portion of success having fallen from 91.4 to 88.5 per cent.; but the Inspector of