CHAPTER I.

                                          GENERAL.

New Code of Vaccination Rules.

1. The new Code of Rules for the management
of the vaccination department and the extension
of the benefits of vaccination among the people of Berar, promised in last
year's Report, was submitted; received the Resident's sanction; and came into
operation in the beginning of this working season.

Although the rules in this Code differ in many particulars from those
previously in force, the general principles on which vaccination is carried on
in Berar are the same. That is to say, we rely on the assistance of the Patails
of villages, and through them, on the influence of the Civil Authorities to get
children for us to vaccinate. In the absence of " compulsory vaccination"
which, I conceive, it is not the wish of Government to introduce, and, there-
fore, the advisability or otherwise of which is, in my mind, beyond discussion,
I believe this is the best principle to work the department on, though there
may be others by which, for the present, better results may possibly be pro-
curable, but in the long run, it is doubtful if these would be as successful as
the mode of procedure we follow here.

Attendance of establishment at school
at Akolah.

2. The members of the establishment, as in
the previous year, were present at head-quarters
during the months of July, August, and September, when they were instructed
in general subjects, such as history, geography, arithmetic, &c., &c., so as to
improve their educational attainments.

Lymph supply.

3. The supply of lymph asked for did not
arrive from England till after the season had
commenced. I was therefore obliged to begin work with a small supply re-
ceived from Bombay. This I did at Akolah, and as it increased sent out Vac-
cinators to their various stations, but, as the lymph had in many instances to
be sent long distances, when tried, it proved a failure, and, thus, retarded work
at the beginning of the season.

Had the supply of lymph from England arrived at the time I asked for it
to reach me, it was my intention to have sent each Superintendent with his
Vaccinators to the head-quarters of his district to begin work in the middle
of September, so that by the 1st of October he would be able to send out some
of his staff to work. Beginning in this way from several centres, there would
not be so much delay in supplying each Vaccinator with lymph as when all
had to be supplied from one place.

I trust that the English lymph will reach me this year in time to carry
out the above idea, as also because I have found that it apparently has in it—
as it were—more vigor than the lymph procured early in the season in this
country. At the beginning of the year, when I used the Bombay lymph, the
number of " failures" and the puny appearance of the vesicles in the success-
ful cases were most provoking just at a time when I was most anxious to
increase my supply of lymph.