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donkey to the bedside, enticed thereto by a basket of grain, which, if he is wise enough
to approach sufficiently near to eat, the evil spirit inhabiting the patient avails itself
of that favourable opportunity for a change of residence; preferring, it is believed, a heal-
thy asinine, to a pustular human home.
Isolation of the patients, however, might be carried out with advantage.
Para. 11. Custody of Vaccine Village records.—The essence of the check upon
falsification of returns is the record prepared in the village or mohulla by the vaccinator.
In this record are put down the names of the children vaccinated with the results of the
operation. This record is open at all times to the inspection of the Superintendents of
Vaccination, the Magistrates or any one else who is interested in the matter, and, on
comparison with the entries in the Vaccinator's diary, the truth or otherwise is unfail-
ingly elicited. But difficulties have arisen as with whom the record should be deposi-
ted. Some Magistrates say the chowkeedar or lumberdar; others the putwaree or
tehseeldar. I therefore ask the definite orders of the Government on the subject. I
myself am of opinion that the tehseel is, under all the circumstances of the case, the
most convenient and securest place of deposit. Chowkeedars and lumberdars have no
proper and safe place for keeping papers; besides chowkeedars and lumberdars die. Put¬
warees do not exist in every village ; any are seldom or ever to be found at home; so that
all things combined I think the tehseeldar the best person to be the custodian. When
the Superintendent comes on his tour of inspection, he must procure from the tehseel
the records of such villages as he intends looking at; the same course must be pursued
by the Magistrate or any other civil authority wishing to investigate. It will not be
so convenient as if kept in the village itself, but there appears to be no other practi-
cable mode, and any inconvenience is better than the risk of the record being destroyed
or not available whenever required.
I therefore hope His Honor will give the necessary permission for tehseeldars
to receive and take care of these records in a safe place, but to be always held available
of access. I would at the same time ask that orders may be issued that chowkeedars and
police are to receive, and forward on to the tehseel, all service covers from the Vaccinator
in their respective Zillahs, as much time is now wasted in the Vaccinator having to trudge
into the tehseelee himself with his returns which chowkeedars and Police have now been
empowered to take over from him.
Para. 12.—English system of Vaccination.—Whilst at home on furlough I investi-
gated the system of vaccination in England, and was so impressed with the superiority
of the principle of our own that I addressed a letter to the chairman of the Committee
upon vaccination, then sitting at the House of Commons, offering to give my evidence.
I mentioned who I was, and gave all particulars necessary to enable him to form an
opinion as to whether my evidence was worth calling for, but as I received no reply
whatever to my letter, I conclude that any evidence I might have afforded was considered
only of Indian, not English value.
However, as I think differently, I will now place my views on official record, and
point out what I consider the blot of the English system.
This system consists in making the obtaining of vaccination as inconvenient as
possible to the people. Vaccine stations are appointed often one or two miles or more
away from the people's homes, and mothers are requested to bring their chil-
dren, under penalties, at a particular hour to be operated on. The child, if a
a primary case, must be under 3 months old. It is thus not difficult to account for
the 8,000 deaths from small-pox in London alone last year, when mothers are requested
to bring out their infants into the pitiless cold and wet of an English winter to a
distant vaccine station, there to be detained for hours, and with perhaps no one to look