45

also to assistance given by the assistant superintendents when visiting a dispensary
town : they collect as many of the children of the town as they possibly can
for inspection, and having lymph at hand, there and then vaccinate all the unpro-
tected they can find. Of 3,660 children primarily vaccinated, there were 2,264
males and 1,396 females : a ratio of 61.86 males to 38.14 females. The propor-
tion in the tálukás of males to females is about 5 per cent. less. There were about
18 hindus to 17 musalmans, whilst last year they were in the ratio of 11 to 13
respectively : this seems to be a good sign, as showing that the hindús avail
themselves more freely of vaccination than they formerly did. About one-third
of the number vaccinated were " under one year." The percentage of success is
low (92.8), owing, in some measure, to failures with tube lymph. One hundred
and thirty persons were re-vaccinated.

Small-pox.

12. Vaccination was very severely tried during the past year. The inva-
sions of small-pox were incessant. It was at diffe-
rent times introduced from Bháwalpur on the north,
Belochistan (Khilat) on the west and Katch on the south, and it was brought by
boat from Bombay and Katch, and from. Matra near Muscat in Arabia. It was intro-
duced into the Karáchi, Shikárpur, Jacobábád, and Thar and Párkar districts, but
into border tálukás or towns only, if we except Saidpur and Lárkháná. The Haidrá-
bád zilhá being central escaped entirely. In the month of April it was prevalent in the
tálukás of Ghorabári and Shahbandar. It was introduced into Karáchi town by a
boy from Kútch ; into the tálukás of Nasirábád and Jacobábád from Khilát; into
Saidpur from Bhawalpur and into Dipla in the Thar and Párkar from Katch ; but it
was immediately extinguished in the latter district by assistant superintendent Mr.
Lál Baksh. In May it was introduced into Obaoro from Bháwalpur. In June it was
introduced into Lárkháná and Kambar from Khilat and extinguished in Jacobábád
and Nasirábád. In July it was extinguished in Shahbandar. In August it re-appear-
ed in Shahbandar and was extinguished in Lárkháná and Obaoro. In September it
was extinguished in Ghorabri and Shahbandar and introduced into Jati by the Sír
creek from Katch. In October the disease appears to have been quiescent every
where. In November it re-appeared in Shahbandar and one case occurred in Ghora-
bari. In December it seems to have finally disappeared from Ghorabari. Owing to
its severity in Karáchi, Khilat, the people of the town of Shahpur asked the political
superintendent of Frontier Upper Sindh that they might be vaccinated, and the
Jacobábád vaccinator was sent by Colonel Loch to work amongst them. In Janu-
ary the disease was extinguished in Shahbandar and introduced from Khilat into
Thul in the Frontier Upper Sindh. In February it was introduced again into
Obaoro from Bháwalpur and extinguished in Thul. In March it was introduced
into Nagar Parkar from Katch and from Suigám. During the year there were
58 deaths from small-pox, viz., 27 in Ghorabari, 10 in Shahbandar, 10 in Karáchi
town and 5 in Jati in the Karáchi collectorate; and 1 in Saidpur, 2 in Ob-
aoro, 2 in Kambar, and I in Lárkháná in the Shikárpur collectorate. The
large number of deaths in the Ghorabári and Shahbandar tálukás, I attribute
entirely to the indolence of the two vaccinators, who had been placed in charge
of them, viz., Parmánand and Watanmal, both of whom were discharged during
the year. This district was unfortunate also in as much as its assistant superin-
tendent was ill for two or three months. The greater number of deaths in
Karáchi did not occur in the town exactly, but in a " nest " of fishermen lying
somewhere between the town and the harbour, and at no great distance from Baba
island. The two municipal vaccinators have been working very hard and deserve
great praise. That the disease should have been so promptly suppressed in the
Shikárpur zilhá, is due entirely to the ability and energy of assistant superintendent
Mr. Hásá Mal. Vaccinator Sarupsing also worked admirably in Spaidur. Just
now ( April ) the disease is prevalent in the táluká of Jati, where assistant super-
intendent Mr. Gangaram has been placed. This táluká is in immediate communi-
cation with Katch both by land and sea, and it is chiefly in the neighbourhood of
Sirbandar and in the villages on the high road to Lakpat that the disease has