( 2 )

doubled. The ratio of persons successfully vaccinated per mille of
the population has risen from 13.77 in 1886-87 to 27.71 in 1895-96.
The mortality from small-pox during the period has varied from
1.26 per mille in 1890 to .04 per mille in 1895. The latter ratio
is the lowest on record in these provinces. It is impossible to
expect that the complete immunity from small-pox which the
provinces enjoyed in 1895 will continue, as the disease has its-
periods of advance and retrogression, a large proportion of the
population is in most districts still unprotected, and in no district are
revaccinations, by which alone is protection made really effective,
numerous. But, from the instructive diagram illustrating the small-
pox death rate for each year from 1876 to 1895 which faces page 4 of
the report, it may be reasonably inferred that such epidemics as occurred
in 1878 and 1883-84, when the deaths amounted to 45 per mille of the
total population of the provinces, are things of the past. Turning to the
district figures in
the table in para-
graph 12, the great-
est progress is ob-
servable in Oudh.
In 1885-86 vacci-
nation in that Pro-
vince was very
backward. In
1890-91 popular
prejudices had been
overcome in two or three of the 12 Oudh districts, but the Province
as a whole was in this matter, very far behind the North-Western
Provinces. A marked improvement has now taken place, and in the
Lucknow Division the ratio of successful vaccinations to the total
population considerably exceeds the provincial ratio and is in excess
of the birth rate. In the Fyzabad Division there is room for fur-
ther improvement, especially in Sultánpur, Bahraich, and Gonda.
Outside Oudh the districts in which vaccination is most backward are the
three districts of the Gorakhpur Division, the five districts of the
Benares Division,
and the two districts
of Allahabad and
Jhánsi. The divi-
sion where it is best
established is that
of Meerut. In Go-
rakhpur and Basti,
after some improve-
ment, matters have
again slipped back
and the ratio of
persons vaccinated
is much below
the birth rate. In