REPORT.                                     ix

Need of vaccine in-
spectors.

Principles on which
vaccination should
be developed.

for many years, if systematic work is carried on until the whole division has
been overtaken. It becomes therefore necessary to provide for continuing the
protection once conferred by the Government establishment. This can best be
done by licensing private vaccine practitioners and assigning to them definite
and manageable areas. It is quite evident, however, that besides the instruction
which they obtain from the Superintendent, systematic supervision is necessary,
and one or more vaccine inspectors should be appointed to each district to
assist, direct, and watch the proceedings of these men. They are evidently
very willing to work under guidance, and the principles which in my opinion
should guide the future development of vaccination in this division are as
follow:—

I.—The establishment as now constituted should continue to extend
exhaustive vaccination in continuation of the work of previous years to all parts
of the division where a sufficient local provision for vaccination has not been
made.

II.—As areas are successively protected in this manner, vaccinators should
be located to maintain the protection perennially.

III.—The area assigned to these men should be accurately defined and
strictly within their power.

IV.—Before being licensed, vaccinators should be taught thoroughly, and
impressed with the principles of good exhaustive work. The best system of
educating them will probably be to entertain them as apprentices for a season,
or part of a season, on a moderate salary working with a gang. They should,
when found competent, be certified accordingly by the Superintendent.

V.—They should be formally licensed by the civil authority of the district,
their license defining the tract of country and numbers and names of villages
which are to form their field of work.

VI.—Such tracts should be conterminous.

VII.—Vaccine inspectors should be appointed to supervise their work;
these should be Government servants and paid from provincial revenues or local
funds. The Civil Surgeon and Superintendent should also supervise as leisure
and opportunity permit. The inspectors should be subordinate to the civil
medical officers.

VIII.—Simple returns should be submitted by the vaccinators to the
inspectors, by them to the Civil Surgeon, and by the Civil Surgeon forwarded to
the Superintendent.

It may not be possible fully to realize these objects for some time to come,
but it appears to me that all efforts should proceed on these principles.

Small-pox         de-
creased since in-
oculation was
prohibited.

32. The Commissioner is " decidedly of opinion that small-pox epidemics
have been much less frequent since the discontinuance of the old practice"
(i.e., inoculation, prohibited in March 1869); still, small-pox does occasionally
break out, and for the purpose of meeting such outbreaks, I think the Superin-
tendent should have a few extra vaccinators placed at his disposal, so as to prevent
the work of the regular establishment being interfered with.

Sonthal Pergun-
nahs.

33. Sonthal Pergunnahs.—The season's work has been very satisfactory
in this circle. The Deputy Superintendent, Sub-Assistant Surgeon Kali Krishna
Ghose, has worked sensibly and successfully, and the Civil Surgeon, Dr. R. C.
Chandra, has endeavoured to extend and establish the system of self-supporting
vaccination described in his last report, and with good results.

Establishment.

34. The Government establishment has continued the same. The Deputy
Superintendent was granted a special allow-
ance of Rs. 50 a month during the working
season, 1st October to 31st March (Bengal
Government letter No. 3230, dated 3rd Octo-
ber 1871). The vaccinators were also granted the graded rates of pay marginally
noted (Bengal Government letter No. 3869, dated 28th November 1871).

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