33
1857
1st Half-year ............
2nd Half-year .............
No. of Vaccinators.
Government.
7
8
Native Chiefs.
9
16
Total.
16
24
Annual Total......
Of these by Government Establishment ...............................
„ „ by Native Chiefs' do. ..............................
No. Vaccinated.
10,975
8,411
19,386
8,794
10,592
" From the above it will be seen that the Native Chiefs' Establishment at the close of the
year 1857 was double the strength it appeared twelve months before. Another Vaccinator
has since been added to it, and I hope to be enabled by degrees, as opportunities present of
obtaining the aid of Chiefs who have not yet entertained Vaccinators, still further to aug-
ment its numbers. As regards operations it will be observed that under the old regime no
ground was lost up to the 1st July; since then, a nearly new Establishment had to be formed.
Government Vaccinators had to be sent, some to Guzerat, some called from thence: of those
who remained in Kattywar the stations have been changed, the Chiefs of the larger towns
having generally provided their own Vaccinators, while the Government men they liberated,
were sent to do duty in the smaller and more impoverished Talookas—in these the number of
petty and conflicting interests renders it often extremely difficult to procure any thing like
general assistance from the Vaccinators in carrying out his work, particularly in conveying
children with infection from one little township to another, and I suspect, that henceforth,
from the nature of their charges, the amount of work done by Government Vaccinators in
this province will not come up to what they formerly accomplished, when located in large
and populous towns and districts.
" The present Returns cannot be supposed to convey a fair idea of the average amount of
work to be half-yearly expected. It will be observed that though the work in the first half
of the year exceeded that in the corresponding six months of 1856, there has beeen a falling
off of nearly three thousand (3,000) in the annual total by the Government Establishment,
which is to be attributed chiefly to the time lost in changes of charges, reliefs, &c., and in
some degree to the other circumstances above noticed.
" The number of operations by the Native Chiefs' Vaccinators, though an advance on
former years, is also far short of what we may hereafter expect: many of these men had to
live in my house for months, and be trained to their work; and though the Establishment
may I hope be considered to count a fair number of hands at the close of the year, a glance
at the Returns will show that the work of many is yet to be accounted for. Let it be borne
in mind that a Vaccinator cannot be trained in a day or in a month or two, and also that by
the terms of the Committee's arrangement, we have yet advanced very little into the period
from which operations were proposed to commence, and it does not seem unreasonable to ask,
that the results already obtained, may not be deemed conclusive.
" The lymph is in general good, and the vesicles are well filled whenever any of the charac-
teristic qualities have been observed by me wanting, its further use has been interdicted, and
a fresh supply procured.
" Small-pox has not been reported to have any where prevailed in these districts, and I am
not aware that inoculation is now practised in this province, nor, excepting the prejudices or
apathy of the inhabitants, do I know of any existing obstacles to the spread of vaccination.
" My tour was not entered on till some time after the commencement of November, as
circumstances interfered with my being relieved of station duties at Rajkote. I first visited
Gondul, where a man selected, and sent to me for education by the Durbar, had been sent in
September, and I found him carrying on operations satisfactorily. From Gondul I went to
Jaitpoor, from whence a Government Vaccinator, who had worked well and with much credit
in that district, had been recalled to Guzerat. In his stead, the Durbar agreed to take into
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