12
NORTHERN DECCAN DIVISION.
Superintendent.—Assistant
Surgeon W. Davey.
Establishment.—Eighteen
Vaccinators.
Years.
1858....
1859....
Total
Vaccinated.
20,783
20,013
Compared with the
preceding Year.
Increase.
220
....
Decrease.
....
770
Success-
fully
Vaccinated.
19,998
19,018
Percentage
of Success.
96.2
95.0
REPORT FOR 1858.
THE total number of vaccinations effected in this Division during the year is 20,783. Com-
paring the work done with that of the previous year, a small increase (220) is observed.
The same cause which undoubtedly retarded vaccination last year, and diminished operations
so much below the average, existed also in the present year. In both years, the Establishment
was virtually short of its full complement of Vaccinators. Although, at the end of 1857, I
succeeded in placing the Establishment on its allowed numerical strength, the services of new
men, then engaged, did not become available until the months of April and May of the year
now under report. The slight increase of the present over the past year may therefore be
considered satisfactory, so far as it goes. The Division is so extensive—comprising between
twenty-seven and twenty-eight thousand square miles,—and the Native Vaccinators necessarily
so widely scattered for the protection of the community from Small-pox, that the Super-
intendent cannot possibly exercise that watchful supervision over each member of his Estab-
lishment as will secure, in every instance, pefectly reliable returns; neither has the check
imposed, with the view of preventing fabrication, been found sufficiently trustworthy.
This last however, which has, I hope, been rendered more effective in this Division, will be
noticed subsequently.
Of the total vaccinated, 10,704 have been males, and 10,078 females, the former, as usual,
showing a slight preponderance over the latter. In respect of age, little more than twelve-
and-a-half per cent, only of the operations have been performed on children under one year old,
whilst the operations on those above that age have amounted to 87 per cent., showing unmis-
takably the objection of parents to submit very young children for vaccination. The skill
and attention of the Vaccinators, as shown in the result of their operations, is the most
favourable aspect of the Return, the percentage of successful cases being a fraction over 96
per cent., whilst the unsuccessful and doubtful together do not amount to 4 per cent. I do not,
however, wish it to be understood that I place implicit reliance on these figures. I even
think it probable that some cases of unsuccessful vaccination are never returned at all; at least,
one instance of the kind I detected during the year, and it is not unreasonable to suppose
that it may have occurred with others, who, from a feeling of being thought inexpert operators,
are induced to exclude from their Returns unsuccessful cases. This supposition, however,
does not affect the result of the total number returned as vaccinated, which I believe to be
tolerably correct, though it may be deduced from what I have observed, that a large number
may have undergone the operation, and been excluded from the Vaccinators' Returns, owing
to the operation having been unsuccessful.