xxiv                         CALCUTTA AND THE SUBURBS.

is unfortunately situated with regard to the other two ; its Superintendent was changed in
the middle of the season, owing to his having proved himself incompetent last year, which
was the first season he had acted in a vaccine establishment. In addition to this, two of the
head vaccinators attached to it are inferior in capacity to the other head vaccinators in the
department, and have only been retained in their posts because the present Superintendent
insists that he can train them up to a necessary state of efficiency before next cold season, and
he is anxious that there should be no change. On several occasions on which fault was
found with the character of the vaccinations, it was pleaded in extenuation that the head -
vaccinator was working under difficulties owing to his trained vaccinators being incapacitated
through fever. It was proved that he had been carrying on the work with young vaccinators,
who under other circumstances would only have been allowed to operate under the eye of
those who could be trusted to guard against their faults. With such exceptions the character
of the vaccination in these three new circles has been of unsurpassed excellence.

The following table shows the results attained to under each of the three Superinten-
dents :—

Thus the percentage of success this year according to the table amounts to 99.42 per
cent. Last year it was stated to be 99.40. As pointed out last year, I do not consider the
materials on which the calculations are made to be so strictly correct, as to deserve that
absolute credence should be accorded to the decimal figures.

With this limitation I accept the figures as representing very closely the amount of
success which has been arrived at.

The fact that ninety-nine out of every hundred vaccinations have proved successful, reflects
great credit upon each of the three Superintendents under whose supervision the work has
been carried on.

During my inspection in the month of February of two of the gangs of vaccinators, I
noted down the number of points of insertion which had failed. Out of 2,225 vaccinated
persons on whom there had been 8,900 points of insertion, in only 56 instances had the
insertion not been followed by vaccinia. Thus in only 0.62 per cent. had failure resulted in
cases in which the persons had, owing to the presence of other points of insertion having taken,
been successfully vaccinated. With the view of comparing them with these results, I requested
each of the Superintendents to make similar observations in the first 500 cases they inspected
in each gang between the 6th and 9th days of the vaccination.

In the combined results of these inspections, it is reported that 95 points had failed in
4,500 cases, in which 18,000 insertions had been practised. A ratio of 0.52 per cent. of failure;
a result which tallies very closely with my own observations. It is the custom in the Vaccine
Department to vaccinate by means of four points of insertion, and I am aware of no test which'
could be applied which would submit the work of the vaccinators to such a severe ordeal as the
one now brought forward. As stated last year, I consider that vaccination as carried on by the
department, as far as relates to its success, may be considered to have practically arrived at
attainable perfection.

Numbers vaccinated and cost of vaccination.

30. During the past season 1,28,589 persons have been reported as having been vaccinated.
Of this number 1,07,140 have been inspected by the
Superintendents of Vaccination, thus 83 31 per cent.
of all the cases vaccinated have not only been seen by a medical man, but have been verified
as having been genuine and not spurious vaccinations. As these new circles were only estab-
ished in October last, in calculating the cost per case of the work done, it has been judged
necessary to make the calculation upon the expense entailed by the establishment during a