Proceedings of the Hon'ble the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, in the Homo Department, No. 4317, dated
                                                                December 1879.

READ—

            The Report on Vaccine Operations in the Punjab for the year 1878-79.

OBSERVATIONS.—The total number of operations during the past year was
481,922, against 495,441 in 1877-78, or a decrease of 13,519; the falling off
being in the work of the dispensary and other local establishments as shown by
the following table:—

The falling off in the work of the dispensary and local establishments is,
it will be seen, considerable ; and this is due in a great measure to the reduction
in the number of men employed, many of whom were totally unqualified, and
were the means of bringing the Department into disrepute owing to their
unskilfulness and general incompetency. The Superintendent-General has
therefore discouraged the employment of such men, several of whom have been
removed and replaced as far as was practicable, by the transfer of members
of the Provincial establishment.

2. The percentages of successful cases are given as follows :—

But the Superintendent-General doubts the correctness of the local returns,
and in most cases considers the favourable results suspicious. It may be that
the view he takes is correct, for representations have before been made of the
inefficiency of the local establishments : but although steps have been taken to
replace incompetent men by those who have been trained on the Provincial
staff, it is by no means certain that the mere transfer of such trained men to
the local establishment will be productive of good, unless proper supervision
be exercised over them. The head vaccinator at Amritsar, referred to in para-
graph 17 (e) of the report, who was a thoroughly good operator, trained under
the head of the vaccine dispensary, had to be dismissed eventually for malprac-
tices, which were only possible because he was not properly looked after.

3.   It is altogether unsatisfactory to find that there are grounds for report-
ing unfavourably of the local vaccine establishments, for it naturally leads
to the belief that the only agency doing really good work is the Provincial
establishment, under the immediate control and supervision of the Superintend-
ent-General and his Assistants ; and until their operations have extended over
the Province, the protection which is to be secured by vaccination will not have
been obtained.

4.   This is not a very hopeful prospect; for the population of the Punjab
at the present time may, it is believed, be safely set down at 20,000,000, and