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and that is, that vaccination within cantonments be made compulsory, otherwise we
decline to hold ourselves responsible for the issues. The freedom of the citizen need
not here be brought forward as a barrier to all good government, for the option will
still remain to him of transferring himself to some other locality, where he can revel in
his own pustules and fling his contagion about with perfect impartiality.
18. - AGES OF CHILDREN VACCINATED.
In para. 6 of the reply from Government to my annual report of last year occurs
the following remark : - " In Kumaon it is noticed that ,while three-fourths of the opera-
tions of last year were said to be performed on yearling infants, only one-fourth are so
returned this year. Violent variations like this must, unless explained, throw doubt
on statistics." The explanation is, that strict orders were issued to all the vaccinators
to overhaul all the children of every village visited, and to vaccinate every one not
showing clear marks of previous vaccination, the habit evidently having been to enquire
mainly after the infants only, assuming too readily that the bigger children had been
protected in previous visits. It was owing to my observing that many of the full-grown
children had escaped vaccination that this order was issued. It is impossible in each
report to explain every item in returns which are measured by the yard, nor is it
possible to calculate beforehand what points will be selected for remark. All that
I attempt to do is to place before the Government broad general facts and principles,
feeling that all honest work will be acknowledged, and that criticism will be more
directed to finding out the good that has been done than to the discovery of trivial
omissions. Everywhere, in both hills and plains, parents have an objection to giving
up their very young infants to be operated upon by the vaccinators; they are full of
superstitions as to bringing them outside the house or into the presence of a stranger.
These superstitions are not the peculiar possession of black people, for I have known
many white persons just as foolish ; they are the common property of all the uneducated
of every clime, and are chiefly rampant where the priest most flourishes. There is a
strange similarity in the three upper circles as to the number of those under one year
of age submitted to the vaccinator, viz., about 25 per cent.. to be explained, I fancy,
upon the same law that the same number of letters are posted every year with the
addresses wanting. In the Benares Circle there are exceptional causes in operation to
account for the extreme paucity of cases of those under one year of age submitted to
vaccination.
These causes were correctly explained by Dr. Macgregor in his last
year's report.
19.—BUNDELKHUND INDEPENDENT STATES.
The vaccination of these States is performed by establishments supported entirely
by the rajahs and landlords. The establishment consists of one deputy superintendent,
nine native superintendents, and 65 vaccinators. These latter are composed mainly
of baida or sattyas, hereditary servants of the States, and are employed in other ways
than as mere vaccinators. Their pay is, generally speaking, upon a most uncertain
footing—some are paid in land, others receive only Rs. 2 or Rs. 3 per mensem during
the working months, whilst all more or less feel that the tenure of their appointments is
precarious. This is the blot in the present system ; and until Dr. Stratton, the Political
Agent, can arrange to place matters upon some more permanent basis, vaccination will
never progress satisfactorily. I have dilated upon the necessity of a thoroughly trained
and properly paid staff so frequently in other parts of this report that I need not again
allude to it. I would gladly see half the present establishments in Bundelkhund dis-
missed in order to secure the remaining half being made genuine. I admit that great
credit is due to Dr. Stratton and to the rajahs for the interest they have evinced in
vaccination, and for the liberality of their contributions; but I consider that energy is
being misdirected, and that, with a better system, at little increase of cost, much more
favourable results might be obtained. I am aware of the difficulties in the way of intro-
ducing the improvements needed, but they are not insuperable ; and I shall continue to
urge them until they are carried out. I visited some of these States during the past