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the grant after 1st February, 1872. I know it is the opinion of many, that, if you
increase the numbers of Vaccinators in a given locality, you increase in a similar propor¬
tion the number of operations. No belief could be founded on more false data than
this. With a voluntary scheme of vaccination, which character is in many instances
well impressed on the villagers, with a population suspicious to a degree, with the prospect
of a census before them, and an idea that vaccination is the last plan of the Government
to indelibly mark the rising generation to afford sound data for future taxation, you
might as well expect a large crop from an " ôôsa maidan" by working a dozen ploughs
on it, and putting in maunds of seed, when it reality there may be only a patch or two
in the whole " maidan,' for which one plough and one maund of seed would be ample,
and that yield but a poor return. Vaccinating in many districts with a large number
of operators is like expecting results from an " ôôsa maidan" in proportion to the
ploughs run over it, and the seed put in, instead of calculating first on the cap-
ability of the district to find work for these men, in the present voluntary scheme,
as a cultivator does with an " ôôsa maidan." If the scheme were compulsory, this
simile would not hold, except by changing the soil, and then the Vaccinators might be
in proportion to the ploughs, and seed on highly irrigated land. You have the satisfac-
tion of having done your best with the means at your disposal, and you can not
regret more than I do, that your efforts have failed."
During the past season, I have addressed a letter to all the Municipalities in the
Agra and Meeaut Divisions, suggesting that the following bye-law be added to those in
force, and all the Presidents of Municipalites who have replied to my letter, have ex-
pressed their entire approval of the suggestion, and have promised to bring the sub-
ject to the notice of the Municipalities at their next meeting. The bye-law is as follows.
" Any person or persons failing, within two days after the fact has come or been brought
to their knowledge, to report to the proper authorities, the presence either of the two
following contagious and infectious diseases, viz., cholera and small pox in their houses
or compounds, will, on conviction be punished by a fine of Rs.—which will be paid
to the crdit of a Fund to be raised for the erection of suitable building or building for
the isolated treatment of the two diseases before named."
Small-pox.
9. During the past season, I have received reports of the appearance of small
pox in the Dehra Doon, the neighbourhood of Gur¬
mookhteshur and in the south of the Saharunpore
District. In the Saharunpore District the disease appeared where it occurred in 1870,
viz., Gungoh, and the head men applied for the services of a Vaccinator who was
at once despatched, and on the occasion of my visit to Gungoh, I was much pleased
with the encouragement given to vaccination, and I trust the numerous operations per-
formed will bear good fruit in future years, as they are due, I hope, to the benefits of the
prophylactic as seen in 1870. The cases of small-pox reported in Gurmookhteshur origi-
nated no doubt from the single case at Lulleanah which I saw, and by improving the oc-
casion, persuaded the villagers to accept the prophylactic extensively. Through the kind-
ness of the Magistrate of Meerut, and the good offices of the Honorary Magistrate of Gur-
mookhteshur, I addressed a meeting of the chief residents of that town, and was much
struck with the opposition of a Hindoo Brahmin Pundit, who said vaccination was
against the orders of the Shasters, which said that small-pox was a visitation from the
goddess Setla, and was to be accepted as a punishment, for which only Native offerings
could be of any avail. I had been told that this objection did exist, but never heard it
advanced, and I therefore asked for the chapter and verse, which however the Pundit
could not give ; so I said, until you can prove this to me, I am not prepared to accept
your word against that of the Brahmins of Muttra and Bindrabun, none of whom ever
advanced this objection to vaccination, but on the contrary, were more favourably in-
clined towards it than I expected they would be, and added, though I questioned them
regarding the objection he had raised, not one of them said that vaccination, or other
means of prevention or treatment in the case of small-pox were prohibited by the