( 15 )
would have had their childrens' lives saved in spite of themselves. I cannot help
thinking that if small-pox had the same personal terrors for the authorities that cholera
has, that greater efforts would be made to stamp it out; and that we should hear less
about the extreme sanctity of the voluntary principle. I am not myself in favour of
compulsion in this country, for I know with what oppression it would be attended,
surrounded as we are by knavery, ignorance, and dishonesty on every side. But I am
in favour of every earnest effort being made short of actual compulsion to push on
vaccination to the utmost. It is lamentable to think of the unnecessary waste of life
that takes place annually. I append below a table of the mortality from small-pox
in the North-Western Provinces for the last eight years. Four hundred and twenty-
three thousand two hundred and sixty-one lives sacrificed, for, as far as small-pox
was concerned, every one of these deaths was a preventible one. I hope a perusal of
this table will open the eyes of the authorities to the great work that lies before them
in endeavouring to stem this vast torrent of human misery.
Return showing the deaths from small-pox in the North-Western Provinces during the
years 1865 to 1872.
1865.
104,395
1866.
66,312
1867.
39,715
1868.
29,983
1869.
90,770
1870.
23,564
1871.
38,449
1872.
30,073
Grand
Total.
423,261
33. Remodelling of the Vaccine Establishment.—This department was first organ-
ized in its present form on a very small scale in 1854. Year by year it has grown,
and with its growth, now extending over the entire North-Western Provinces, its use-
fulness has more than relatively increased. But changes are now needed to meet these
altered conditions.
A Deputy Superintendent is urgently required for the Agra and Meerut Circle,
and also for the Allahabad and Jhansie Circle. These circles are so large that it is sim-
ply impossible for their Superintendents to get over them in one season, inspecting
every vaccinator; and it is essential that every man should be visited once in the season
by a thoroughly honest and independent officer. Close supervision is the backbone of
the system, and, if it cannot be given, better to have no vaccination at all than to pro-
pagate a spurious imitation of it. Nothing can be worse than to stint the amount of
supervising agency. Next in order to the above proposal, different grades of pay are
required for the vaccinators. The present uniform dead-level for good and bad, old
and young, is most disheartening and unfair. There should be three grades, viz., the 3rd
of Rs. 10 per mensem during the working season, and Rs. 6 during the recess as now.
This would be the lowest grade. It is not more than barely enough to enable a man
to live in any degree of respectability in these tight times. The 2nd grade should be
Rs. 12 and 8, and the 1st, Rs. 14 and 10. I am not wedded to any particular sum.
I only ask that it may be admitted by the Government that the men are at present
underpaid, and that it is to the interests of all concerned that the department should
be recruited by persons of respectable family, and that they should be made content
with their position in it, by reason of the good treatment received, and the nature of
the duties committed to them, being considered as honourable and important. All the
Native Superintendents (the eyes of the department) should similarly have their salaries
raised to the higher grade of Rs. 30 and 20. The present allowance of the lower grade,
Rs. 20 and 16, is not sufficient to enable them to maintain that appearance which is so
essential to their duties. They have to hold personal communication with all the
Native gentlemen and landlords of their districts, and with all classes of officials. Upon
their demeanour, presence, and powers of speech, the spread or decline of vaccination is
much determined. I do not expect that all these concessions can be granted at once.
I shall be satisfied if I am permitted to estimate in the coming budget for some portion