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SHORT NOTES ON VACCINATION.
FOR THE YEAR
1906-07.
THE following are brief notes on vaccination in Bengal for the year
1906-07.
Officer in charge of the Depart-
ment.
2. Captain W. W. Clemesha, I.M.S., was in charge of the Department
from 1st April to 15th November 1906, and I for
the rest of the year. The following officers served
as Deputy Sanitary Commissioners: —
Bengal and Orissa Circle.—Captain W. C. Ross, I.M.S., was in charge
from 1st April to 26th July and again from 19th October to 18th November
1906 ; Dr. Hay Pulipaka from 27th July to 18th October 1906, and Captain
D. Munro, I.M.S., from 19th November 1906 to 31st March 1907.
Bihar and Chota Nagpur Circle.—Captain James Masson, I.M.S., held
charge from 1st April to 20th August 1906; Senior Assistant Surgeon Kali
Nath Banarji from 21st August to 25th November 1906, and Captain W. C.
Ross, I.M.S., from 26th November 1906 to 31st March 1907.
Strength of Staff.
3. There was very little change in the staff. There was an increase of
one Government and 41 licensed vaccinators and
two subordinate supervising officers paid by Muni-
cipalities and Native States.
General operations.
4. The total number of operations performed in the Province during
the year was 2,037,273 against 2,041,230 of the
previous year. The number of primary and re-
vaccination cases was 1,874,976 and 162,297 against 1,904,625 and 136,605, res-
pectively, of 1905 06. There was an increase of 25,692 re-vaccination and a
decrease of 29,649 primary cases. The decrease in primary vaccination is
slight. It is due principally to the high prices of food-grains which prevailed
during the year and which made the poorer classes of the people reluctant to
offer their children for vaccination owing to difficulty or inability to pay
vaccination fees.
The ratio of success under the two different heads in rural areas and
municipalities was 99 30 and 70.40, and 97.85 and 56.66, respectively, against
99.16 and 66.63, and 98.38 and 65.17, respectively, of 1905-06.
Out of the 34 districts of Bengal, including the Tributary States of
Orissa, there was an increase of operations in 13, and a decrease in 21 dis-
tricts. The increase is most striking in the Tributary States, 52,798, Darjeeling,
22,846 and Murshidabad, 22,716. The principal decrease occurred in Cuttack
15,451, Jessore, 10,581, Nadia, 7,932, Howrah, 7,458, Darbhanga, 7,283,
Birbhum 6,769, and 24-Parganas, 6,468.
In Darjeeling the increase is due to the outbreak of small-pox in the town
and the consequent increased activity of the staff to vaccinate as large a
number of people as possible. In Murshidabad, it is attributed to the employ-
ment of a larger number of vaccinators and to better supervision. In the case
of the Tributary States, no explanation has been furnished, but a part of the
increase is evidently due to the inclusion of the figures of the Sonpur State
which did not furnish any return last year.
As regards the decrease, the Civil Surgeon of Cuttack reports it to be due
to scarcity of food-grains which made the people unwilling to spend money on
vaccination, and many vaccinators in consequence left their elakas and went
home.
In Jessore, it is said to be due to (a) the absence of several vaccinators owing
to illness for the greater portion of the working season, and (b) the excessive
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