( 24 )
Terree, ... ...
Meerut Municipality, ...
Allygurh ditto, ...
Hattrass ditto, ...
Agra
ditto, ...
No. of Vac-
cinators.
3
2
2
2
3
12
more than compensated for in the perspicuity with which the results are recorded,
since, with the exception of the twelve vaccinators
noticed in the margin, where operations are taken on
an average, the work of the remaining 77 vacci-
nators for the season is most clearly shown. As I
have in para. No. 10 discussed the subject of the
numbers of the operations performed by each vacci-
nator, I will not enter into it here. With reference
to the decrease in the total of operations performed during the past season, I am afraid an
indulgence, which I felt it to be my duty to grant (as no ordinary holidays are allowed
during the vaccine season), after obtaining the consent of the Officiating Superin-
tendent-General of Vaccine, North-Western Provinces, viz., of making Sunday a
day of rest in this department, as it is in every other Government one, has had not a
little to do with it. For instance, 986 is the average number for each vaccinator dur-
ing the season, which, according to my calculation of four months, say of 30 days
each, and deducting 16 Sundays, leaves 104 operating days, during which 986 opera-
tions were on an average performed by each vaccinator, or upwards of nine on each
working day; if, therefore, these 16 Sundays had not been exempted, there would
have been 12,816 extra operations, or upwards of 7,000 in excess of the previous
season. It is worthy of note, however, that the number of the cases per diem fixed
as the maximum of good work, and alluded to in para. No. 10, has, during the past
season, been nearly reached on an average by all the vaccinators. I am not aware
if in the other vaccine circles of the North-Western Provinces vaccination is carried on
on Sundays, but when I state that not a single holiday of the numerous ones occurring
between the 1st November and the 31st March is allowed in my divisions, I think it
will be granted that the vaccinators and Native Superintendents absolutely require
some rest in five months. Sickness, and, perhaps, the risk of insult during the excesses
of the two days in the Holee festival, are the only excuses accepted for a week day
being blank in a vaccinator's or Native Superintendent's diary. There is also
another cause for the decrease under notice, and which is well shown in Statement
No. I., being due to the promotion to Native Superintendent of a good vaccinator, and
his place being filled by a stranger to the district, and an inferior operator. The case
I allude to is under the heading of Kerowlee, in the Agra District. The vaccinator
who worked there in November and December performed 590 operations in these
two months, while the man who succeeded him on his promotion to Native Superinten-
dent, in the remaining three months performed only 424 operations, when vaccine
lymph should have been in abundance, and the result has been a loss of upwards of
600 operations in the season when compared with the last Other similar instances
could be adduced of this apparent injury to the department by the promotion of a
good vaccinator to a Native Superintendent, though, perhaps, not exhibiting such a
total loss in result; yet, not to reward a deserving vaccinator because it might affect
the numerical returns, independent of being a grave injustice to the vaccinator him-
self, would remove all stimulus to good work, and would end in making each vacci-
nator do only enough work to retain his post, and nothing more. The rate of success
is nearly 1½ per cent. higher than last season, and has now in my opinion almost
reached its limit, unless steps are taken to convert the omedwars, or applicants for
the post of vaccinator, into a recognized grade of the department. In the Vaccine
Department of the North-Western Provinces the primary vaccine instructions are
very defective. An omedwar may be described as an applicant for a post who lives
on hope instead of pay, for a longer or shorter period depending greatly on his
private means, or the salaries of his relations in the department; and more than once
have I seen most promising men obliged to go home for some money to carry on a
little longer, and when the nomination came, the answer not unfrequently sent was that
the omedwar had returned to his home. To remedy this state of things, the only
method I can think of is to form a grade of supernumerary vaccinators, as is recom-
mended in Bombay, but this would involve an increase to the vaccine grant, which,