( 5 )
Deaths from small-pox.
14. The total number of deaths from small-pox during the year was
25,302, against 14,514 of the preceding year.
The largest number of deaths was recorded in the
districts of Cuttack (7,081), Calcutta (2,240), Midnapore (2,071), Puri (1,746),
Gaya (1,181), and Palamau (1,080), whereas in the districts of Tippera, Malda,
Birbhum, Chittagong, Khulna, Dinajpur, and Murshidabad the mortality was
lowest, viz., 6, 7, 17, 18, 20, 23, and 28, respectively.
In Calcutta 476 cases of small-pox were admitted into the Campbell
Hospital, of which 124 were vaccinated, 4 inoculated, and 348 unprotected.
The ratio per cent. of deaths among each class of admissions was 9.67, 25, and
58.62, respectively.
Animal Vaccination Depôts.
15. In the Animal Vaccination Depôts in Calcutta and Darjeeling 452
and 169 calves were vaccinated, against 411 and
173, respectively, of the previous year. The
amount of lanoline paste, in grains, manufactured was 65,832 and 50,329,
respectively, against 58,800 and 49,538 of 1899-1900.
The quantity of lymph which the two animal vaccination depôts are
capable of supplying is quite insufficient to meet the increased needs of the
Province. In many districts the arm-to-arm method of vaccination is being
gradually superseded by vaccination direct from the calf or from lanoline
lymph manufactured in the Calcutta and Darjeeling Depôts. The result is a
growing demand for lymph, which the depôts cannot meet, and vaccination
work consequently suffers. There should be at least two more depôts. One
will shortly be established at Pusa, and, I think, there should be another in
Orissa for the supply of lymph to the districts of the Orissa Division and the
Political States of Orissa and Chota Nagpur, where vaccination is backward.
Different methods of vaccination.
16. During the year under review 280,502 primary vaccinations were
performed with calf lymph, 220,347 with lanoline
lymph, and 1,727,093 by the arm-to-arm process.
The ratio per cent. of success under each of these methods of vaccination was
98.46, 94.54, and 98.04, respectively. Thirty-two thousand five hundred and
fifty-six, 44,617, and 41,196 revaccinations were also performed under each of
the above three processes of vaccination with a success of 61.10, 51.66, and 65.91
per cent., respectively.
Supply of lymph to the Nepal
Darbar and Sikkim State.
17. Four hundred and forty grains of lymph were supplied from the
Animal Vaccination Depôt, Darjeeling, to the Nepal
Darbar, which is reported to have produced excel-
lent results. Two thousand four hundred and
fifty-eight grains of lymph were also supplied from the same depôt to the
Sikkim State.
18. Inspections.—I inspected 1,860 vaccinations. The Deputy Sanitary
Commissioner, Metropolitan and Eastern Bengal Circle, inspected 1,476 vaccin-
ations. He could not do more, as during the vaccination season he was on
special duty in the Tributary States of Orissa, in Bogra, at Puri, and at Howrah.
The Deputy Sanitary Commissioner, Northern Bengal Circle, could not also,
during his short tenure of office, do any vaccination inspection, as he was
entirely engaged on plague duty. The Deputy Sanitary Commissioner, West-
ern Bengal Circle, Assistant Surgeon Gopal Chandra Mukerjea, inspected
9,771 cases.
Among Civil Surgeons, 3, viz., Muzaffarpur, Bankura, and Champaran,
inspected more than 10,000 operations, against 5 of last year, while 17 against
9 inspected from 5,000 to 10,000. Fourteen Civil Surgeons inspected between
2,000 to 5,000 operations, and 5 only, viz., Bogra, Chittagong Hill Tracts,
Murshidabad, Cuttack, and Calcutta, inspected less than 1,000 cases.
Of the subordinate inspecting staff, 13 District Inspectors of Vaccin-
ation inspected more than 50 per cent. of the operations in their jurisdiction ;
7 between 40 and 50 per cent.; 24 between 20 and 40, and 4 below 20
per cent. In 9 districts, the Sub-Inspectors of Vaccination inspected more
than 80 per cent. of the operations under their charge; in 31 between 50
and 80 per cent., and in 8 districts only below 50 per cent. The attention of
the Civil Surgeons of the districts in which the inspection has been insufficient
will again be drawn to the matter.
19. The statements prescribed in India, Home Department, letter
No. 2741, dated the 26th March 1901, are appended to these notes.
H. J. DYSON, MAJOR, I.M.S.,
Sanitary Commissioner for Bengal.
The 7th June, 1901.