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Superintending Surgeon. I am happy to be enabled to report that, having been successful in
proving the guilt of these parties, they met with severe and well merited punishment. These
punishments at my suggestion have been published throughout the whole country, and I feel
confident the happiest effects may be anticipated. I append a map* of my area of vaccination,
showing its size, villages, populations, &c. On the several borders my Assistant meets the
Vaccinators of several districts, and working in concert with them the whole of the ground is
supposed to be visited. It is my pleasing duty to add that Small-pox has prevailed to a very
slight extent in our villages during the past season, and I attribute this principally to the check,
which has been given to the practice of inoculation and to the support given by Political
Authorities to vaccination."
1857.—Dr. Broughton states:—
"The Station Vaccinator has, during the past year, registered three hundred and seventy-
seven (377) more cases than the previous year. This success is the more satisfactory when the
state of the country is taken into consideration, and I think reflects great credit upon the
zeal and perseverance of my Assistant, who has kept up a good supply of lymph throughout
the whole of the disturbances, although the closure of the city gates and the dangerous state
of the roads necessarily offered serious impediments in the discharge of duty. I attribute
this increase to the support given to the system by Political Authority in accordance with the
instructions of Government. Of the three thousand one hundred and ninety-seven (3,197)
cases vaccinated, one thousand six hundred and fourteen (1,614) were males, and one thousand
five hundred and eighty-three (1,583) females—a greater number of males might have been
expected, and the question suggests itself whether a comparison of numbers thus obtained
may not exhibit an important difference between the European and Asiatic with respect to the
birth of sexes. With one or two exceptions the cases were all infants. Out of the three
thousand one hundred and ninety-seven (3,197) there were one hundred and one (101) failures,
and two hundred and seventy-three (273) in which success was doubtful. The quality of the
lymph was satisfactory. I tested it more frequently than usual during this period, from my
anxiety lest the operation of the system should be suspended, owing to the mutinous state
of the times. Small-pox as usual has prevailed but to no very serious extent. One inocula-
tor has been arrested in the small district under my superintendence, and the necessity for,
and advantage derived from, constant watchfulness against these importers of pestilences, has
been shown in a somewhat remarkable manner. In the month of March a Concan inoculator
applied to me for compensation for loss of business in the Kolapore country. He pleaded
that he and his father before him had obtained their livelihood by annual tours in these
districts, and that in consequence of my vigilance he was a ruined man. I sent this individual
to lay his complaint before the Political Authority. I feel certain that the common people
will readily embrace vaccination if cut off from the aid of the inoculator. For this reason I
would recommend that heavy fines should be inflicted upon all Village Authorities who
encourage or allow an inoculator to practice within their limits. Proclamations to this
effect would, I think, be usefully issued every year, as without continual repetition such order
would soon become forgotten. Were this system strictly carried out, I am disposed to
consider compulsion would not be necessary to the full development of the great advantages
of vaccination.
* This map is not published.