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the low rate of infant vaccination in this Province is aptly described by Major
Crawford, I.M.S., Civil Surgeon of Hooghly, and, as his views correspond with
those of many other Civil Surgeons, I quote below from his report—
" * * * I believe also that the number of infants under one year of age vaccinated
is really somewhat greater (probably by five to ten per cent.), than appears in the returns.
Infants from 9 to 12 months are vaguely stated to be one year old, are entered as one year old,
and so appear in the returns among children from one to six years, instead of among infants
under one year. * * * It is desirable that all the children born should be vaccinated.
But in the absence of compulsory vaccination, no one has any power to insist upon all, or
half, or any of the children under one year of age being vaccinated. The matter rests
entirely with the people themselves. They do not themselves bring forward young children
for vaccination, the vaccinators cannot insist upon their being vaccinated, much less perform
the operation forcibly against the parents' will, and the result is, that most of the young
children remain unvaccinated. So it has always been, so it is, so it probably always will be.
The vaccinators find the older children, from 1 to 6 years, outside their houses, and operate
upon them, the parents not actually wanting the operation done, but not, as a rule, making
any particular objection. Therefore, the great majority of vaccinations are always among
children from one to six years.
" It may be thought from the above, that I would advocate the general introduction of
compulsory vaccination into rural areas, throughout Bengal. Far from it. I think that such
a measure would be ill-advised. The Government has not at present got, and does not seem
likely to have, sufficient staff to supervise such a measure. I believe that compulsory vaccina-
tion, universally introduced, would either remain a dead letter, or would do more harm than
good, the evil caused by the harassment to which the people would be subjected, being far
greater than any good that would be done in diminishing small-pox.
" The only way in which a measure of modified compulsory vaccination might be intro-
duced, so as to work satisfactorily, would be, as far as I can see, somewhat as follows. To
give power to the District Magistrate to declare any area, in which small-pox was prevalent
infected with small-pox, and by such declaration to introduce compulsory vaccination, and
re-vaccination, temporarily, and over a limited area. Such an area might be a village, a
municipality, a group of villages, a thana or more than a thana. The time for which it
would be necessary to keep compulsion in force would be the time which it would take to
thoroughly vaccinate and re-vaccinate the infected area; the larger the area the longer the
time. The expense of such a measure would have to be met by the District Board. And
the fact that the Magistrate, who put the measure in force, would have, in his capacity, as
Chairman of the Board, to find the funds to pay for it, would be sufficient safe-guard that
such a measure would not be introduced without real necessity."
Although there is much force in the above statement. I believe that a
good deal can be done by local influence, and by persuasion and tact on the
part of the executive officers, and the superior supervising officers of this
Department. It must be admitted that as the result of the Government Reso-
lution on the notes on vaccination in Bengal for the year 1900-1901, which
brought pressure to bear on the local officers, considerable improvement has
been made in infant vaccination, and in vaccination generally, in many districts,
notwithstanding many adverse circumstances. The fluctuations in the figures
of different districts seem to be due to different circumstances of each district,
as regards health condition, opposition to vaccination, and the interest taken
by the Civil Surgeons and the Executive officers. Wrong classification in
the returns by ignorant vaccinators of the ages of the children vaccinated,
is also responsible for the fluctuation in the figures of different districts.
Re-vaccination.
7. The total number of re-vaccinations during 1901-1902 was 83,400,
39,992 and 9,656, respectively in rural areas,
mufassal municipalities and dispensaries, &c., and
Calcutta against 42,223, 49,603 and 26,543 respectively of 1900-1901 and 13,326
24,069 and 11,142 respectively of 1899-1900. The average number of opera-
tions performed in the province during the triennial period under review was
99,984 against 69,045 of the previous period or an increase of 30,939 operations,
which is satisfactory. The large increase of operations of the past year was,
chiefly due to the greater prevalence of small-pox in the province. The percen-
tage of successful cases was 61.14 against 61.22 of 1896-99. This high rate is
said to be due to the operations having been performed on adults who had been
vaccinated in infancy and in whom the effect of primary vaccination had
been destroyed.
Recess work
8. During the recess or non-working season of 1901-1902, 224,510 opera-
tions were performed, chiefly in connection with
small-pox epidemics and the up-keep of lymph for
emergencies, against 1,13,392 of the previous year. The work was nearly
A 2