132    REPORT OF THE LEPROSY COMMISSION:
hand, estimating the births at forty per one thousand of the
population, the average percentage of annual estimated births
successfully vaccinated amounts only to about thirty per cent.
(1889-1890):-
PROVINCE.
Percentage  of   annual 
estimated births suc-
cessfully vaccinated  (1889-1890).
Bengal          
12·3
North-Western Provinces and Oudh
18·4
Punjab         
63·9
Central Provinces
47·4
Berar 
78·3
Lower Burma 
11·1
Assam 
8·3 
Madras
14·3
Bombay
58·1

Having shown that only a comparatively small number of
the natives are as yet vaccinated, an enquiry will be made into
the danger of diffusing leprosy through this channel:-
(a)   It must be remembered, that as this will be fur-
ther discussed in Chapter V, leprosy is not a
disease which, like syphilis, can easily and with
certainty be transmitted by a single inoculation.
(b)   Taking the births   only,   not   more   than   about
thirty per cent. are annually successfully vac-
cinated in their first year, and probably not
more than forty per cent. of the children are
vaccinated in their first six years. With a
population of two hundred millions and a
birth-rate of 3.4 per cent., in the specified
provinces about two-and-a-half million children
are vaccinated in their first year, and two-and-
three-quarter millions in their first six years, so