UNITED PROVINCES OF AGRA AND OUDH.
5
four places, it is more effectual than when introduced into one or
two places only ; and that if the vaccination marks are of an area
of half a square inch, they indicate a better state of protection than
if their area be below this.
Inoculation.
9. In England, for nearly a century previous to the discovery of
vaccination, inoculation of the virus from selected mild cases of small-pox
was used as a means of lessening the severity of the disease. The matter
was taken from the " pock" or eruption of an existing case and inserted in
the arm of a healthy person, usually a child. The result was an attack of
small-pox, often mild but not infrequently fatal, and always dangerous to
others, in that such cases spread infection, and infection from a mild case can
produce the most severe and fatal form of small-pox. The fact that such a
practice was in use before vaccination was known, shows how greatly
dreaded small-pox was by the unprotected people of those days. They were
content to accept the risk of a serious, sometimes fatal, illness, to escape the
greater risk of naturally communicated small-pox which spared few and
killed nearly half its victims. Inoculation has now rightly been made
illegal in all civilized countries, owing to the danger both to the inoculated
and those brought in contact with them, and also to the fact that vaccination
has proved equally efficient and infinitely safer as a means of protection.
Means pursued by Government for conferring Vaccination
upon its subjects in the United Provinces of Agra and
Oudh.
Staff Employed and Spheres of Employment.
10. In the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh the supervising staff con-
sists of two Deputy Sanitary, Commissioners, 48 Civil Surgeons,and 49 Assistant
Superintendents, and the average number of operators (vaccinators is 899.
The Provinces have been divided into two circles—the first circle comprising
the Meerut, Agra, Allahabad, and Rohilkhand Divisions, and the district of
Garhwál in the Kumaun Division, and Tehri Garhwál; the second circle
comprising the Province of Oudh, the Gorakhpur and Benares Divisions,
and the districts of Almora and Naini Tál in the Kumaun Division. Each
circle is under the superintendence of a Deputy Sanitary Commissioner, and
each district is under the direct supervision of the District Civil Surgeon,
assisted by an Assistant Superintendent of Vaccination. There is a separate
Assistant Superintendent of Vaccination for the Tehri State. To nearly
every thána and municipality a vaccinator is appointed, and, in addition to
these, large estates employ and maintain vaccinators privately. The whole is
under the supervision and control of the Sanitary Commissioner.
Duties of the vaccinator.
11. (i) The vaccinator will, at the beginning of the season, when he has
obtained a supply of lymph from his Assistant Superintendent, proceed to
establish it in his circle by vaccinating with it healthy children likely to
yield lymph suitable for carrying on the work.
(ii) When he has thus established his supply he will proceed
systematically from village to village in his circle (iláqa) in one onward
direction, and will vaccinate all the unprotected in these villages.
(iii) He will ascertain from the village chaukidár's birth register,
the names of all children born since the previous season and will vaccinate
them all.