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marked difference does exist, it is not due to want of zeal in the Vaccinator, or his fitness
for his duties, but to the simple refusal of the villagers or residents in the towns to
accept the present voluntary scheme of vaccination ; its acceptance is optional, and they
simply decline it. I have myself had not a little difficulty in getting a simple hearing
among some Rajpoot Thakoor Jat villagers, who, I dare say, for reasons before given
in my letter to Mr. Palmer, had some object in declining the scheme, and it need not
therefore be wondered at, if a man, with the small influence a Vaccinator has, is simply
passed on from village to village, and in some cases, to hurry his movements, has the
village dogs set on him, or, what amounts to the same thing, not a hand is raised, or a
word said, to drive them off. If, in addition to the present means used to prevent infant
murders, a clause were added to the Act, to the effect that all female infants in the
villages in which it is in force were to be vaccinated before they were four months,
a very good record of their existence would remain in the village, and a fertile means
of accounting for their deaths, after six months old, viz., from small-pox, would in great
measure be removed. I allow that this would border on compulsory vaccination, but
the case is exceptional and must be met by exceptional measures.
Annual returns.
13. As remarked in para. 7 of last year's report, these are so clearly exhibited in
Statement No. I., that I need only allude to the grand
total. This, during the past season (one in which
small-pox could not be said to have been prevalent), amounted to 96.646, being an
increase of 8,810 as compared with 1870-71. This increase, however, must have deducted
from it 2,993 or nearly 3,000, as these were the number of operations in the Hills
during the hot and rainy season of 1870, which were omitted in Statement I for 1870-71,
though subsequently furnished, but too late to appear in it. The work of the increased
staff of Vaccinators must also be taken into account in drawing a comparison with
1870-71, but after making due allowance for this, the returns exhibit an improvement
as regards the total number of operations. The rise in the rate of success, viz., from
88.9 to 90.8, will, I trust, be considered satisfactory, as the improvement in the quality
which it represents must be the great aim of the present voluntary scheme, since its
ultimate success rests in a great measure on the quality of the work performed. A
reference to the work of the season under report in the district of Saharunpore exhibits
a total of upwards of 8,000 operations, performed by five Vaccinators, and had it not
been for the very severe illness of the Vaccinator at Deobund (who would no doubt have
doubled his present number of 1870) the average number of operations performed by
each Vaccinator would have been upwards of 1,700, and the rate of success above 90
per cent. If the establishment in this district is doubled, as I have recommended, I
have great hopes that if the number of operations are proportionally increased, vacci-
nation ere long will become fully established, and, with but a few exceptions, be
recognised as one of the greatest benefits a parent can obtain for his child. A great
point is gained when a large village like Gungoh sends a second time for the services of
a Vaccinator, and no better proof could be adduced of the benefits his first visit conferred.
In the district of Dehra Doon it will be noticed, that, for all practical purposes, the
birth-rate calculated at 30 to 1,000 has been reached, but only one-third of the opera-
tions were performed on children under one year. The epidemic of small-pox alluded
to in para. 9 included every case of the disease, which occurred during the year under
report, and when it is considered that during this period 1,500 operations were perform-
ed on persons above a year old, I think, it will be granted that vaccination, allowed to
be considerably short of complete as regards the protection of all the cases requiring
the operation, nevertheless exercises a very beneficial influence, when small-pox is pre-
valent, by reducing the amount of contagion, and thus limiting the spread of the disease,
and confining it within bounds, which will admit of its being stamped out. The extent
which the epidemic under notice attained was reached, not by half the number of
of cases appearing on a single day, or within a week, but as follows : 4 in September,
4 in December, 2 in January, 1872, 10 in February, and 10 in March. Of these, 30
cases, eight appeared in Dehra, during September, October, November, December,