2
carried on, as usual, in the infected places, and it is gratifying to observe that
there has been a steady increase in the work during the last two years, as
will be seen from the following figures:—In 1901-02, the total operations
performed by all establishments were 668,144; in 1902-03, the first year of the
triennial period under review, the number was 667,544; in 1903-04 it
rose to 685,105 and in 1904-05 to 719,771. The number of vaccinations for
1904-05 would be still larger, if the operations for February and March 1905
for the district of Kángra, from which no returns have been received, were in-
cluded. The marked improvement in the work that has taken place during the
years 1903-04 and 1904-05 is satisfactory, but the total operations for the
triennial period put together are still nine per cent. less than the number
recorded in the preceding three years, and I have no reason to doubt that, but
for the increasing virulence of plague, the results would have been equally
good, if not better.
Number of vaccinations
and re-vaccinations by
sexes. Statement No. I.
7. Of the total primary vaccinations in 1904-05, fifty-three percent.
were among males and forty-seven among females, or
exactly in the same proportion as in the preceding year.
Of the total re-vaccinations, seventy per cent. were
among males and thirty among females, as against sixty-two and
thirty-eight in 1903-04. As stated in my Vaccination Notes for the
last year, the reason for fewer females being re-vaccinated is that people do not
wish their young girls to be seen by vaccinators. The attention of Civil
Surgeons has been drawn to the advisability of taking steps to overcome the
objection of the people to the re-vaccination of females ; but in a matter like
this, particularly in places where the opposition is very strong, improvement
will doubtless be gradual, and must depend mainly on the tact and behaviour
of the vaccinators.
District Staff, Primary
vaccinations.
Statement
No. I.
8. The work of the District Staff, as a whole, including primary vacci-
nations and re-vaccinations, shows a large increase
during the last two years. As regards primary vaccin-
ations, however, it was less satisfactory in 1904-05
than in the preceding two years, taking the figures for the Province as
a whole. All marked differences in the statistics of the district returns for the
first two years of the triennial period under report have already been fully ex-
plained in my Vaccination Notes for those years. Comparing the figures for
the last year, 1904-05, with the receding one, it appears that in nearly half the
number of districts of the Province the amount of work did not differ much.
In four districts, namely, Ludhiána, Rohtak, Miánwáli and Dera Gházi Khan,
there was a very satisfactory increase, and in Gurgáon and Lahore, on the
other hand, there was a large falling-off in the number of primary vaccina-
tions. In Hosbiárpur, Gujránwála and Jhang the decrease is only apparent, as
the Special Staff took up one tahsíl each and did a large amount of work which
is not included in the returns of the District Staff. In Gurgáon, in which plague
broke out very severely for the first time, there was an unusually great
opposition offered by the people against re-vaccination, and it may have
affected primary vaccinations also. The deficiency in the number of primary
vaccinations in the Lahore district may be accounted for, to some extent,
by the greater prevalence of plague last year. In the year before last, when
the epidemic was very severe in the district, there was also a great decrease in
the work, the number of primary operations performed that year being even
fewer than in 1904-05. The smaller number of primary vaccinations in Ráwal-
pindi and Jhelum is due to certain tahsils transferred to Attock. Lyallpur was
constituted as a new district in December, and its statistics will be shown
separately next year.
District Staff. Re-vac-
cination. Statement No. I.
9. The most noticeable feature of the returns for 1904-05 is the great
increase in re-vaccinations, the total operations performed
by the District Staff being no less than seventy-one and
sixty-two per cent., respectively, in excess of those in 1903-04 and 1902-03.
Great fluctuations were noticed in re-vaccinations on account of the haphazard
manner in which vaccinators did their work in previous years. With the view to
carry on re-vaccinations systematically, as ordered by Government in the con-
cluding portion of paragraph 1 of the Review of His Honour the Lieutenant-
Governor, on my Vaccination Notes for 1903-04, [ addressed a circular letter to