PRESIDENCY VACCINE DEPARTMENT.                             11

was not attracted to the point so much in the other divisions; but in the
diary, kept by the Superintendent of the middle division, I see he has
made the same observation repeatedly, and has been most indefatigable
in insisting upon the vaccinators guarding against this fault. This daily
record of his proceedings has been most diligently prepared by Baboo
Buddynath Brummo and might serve as a model of neatness, complete-
ness, and precision, for any one requiring to be taught how to furnish
such a document. It serves to aid the Superintendent General in a
most effective way to obtain a more exact insight into the daily working
of the department than he could possibly obtain in any other way. This
inflammatory tendency is a great part preventable. As soon as the
Superintendents can devote more of their attention to the vaccinators it
may be expected to diminish. For this alone, if for no other cause, I
would urge that the Superintendents should be allowed to confine
themselves to the duties for which they were appointed.

Independent of the importance of a supply of perfect virus,
the question of good or bad vaccination exercises much influence on the
popularity with which the practice is received. The pain and fever
attendant on unnecessary inflammation, are drawbacks to accepting
vaccination, of which unwilling people will be ever ready to take
advantage in disparaging this prophylactic.

Numbers
vaccinated.

16. The numbers vaccinated in Calcutta during the last vaccinating
season have amounted to 3,848, while those in the Suburbs have been
4,685. These numbers may be taken to represent pretty fairly the
amount of vaccination among the permanent population of Calcutta
and its Suburbs, as many more persons have been vaccinated by the
same establishment, but have not been included in the above statements,
owing to their having only been temporary residents while passing
through Calcutta to some other destination. A great proportion of these
have been cases of juvenile vaccination, but the exact extent to which
infant vaccination has been practised cannot now be stated, as the time,
necessary to determine this point, precludes the calculation being made
before the report must leave this office. For practical purposes, however,
the figures as they stand might be compared against the birth-rate of
Calcutta, and they approach somewhat closely to the births which have
been registered. Owing to the imperfection of the data, as regards the
number of births, which actually take place in Calcutta, this happy state
of matters is only an apparent one; the real fact being, that the numbers
vaccinated yearly will be found to fall very far short of the birth-rate