4                                                           ANNUAL VACCINATION REPORT

The work of ex-inoculators shown in
Statement IV.

8. From the following Statement, No. IV., we learn the work of vaccination as
carried on in each district in the Province by the ex-inocula-
tors during the past season:—

                                                                      STATEMENT IV.

                    Showing the work done by the ex-Inoculators and the total number of Dispensary and Municipal
                                                                            Vaccinators.

We have their work placed alongside of the work of the dispensary and municipal
vaccinators thus,—96 ex-inoculators show on the one hand a total of 15,890 primary
and 282 re-vaccinations, making a total of 16,172 operations, with a total percentage
of success of 93.43, whilst 36 vaccinators show a total of 18,668 primary and
720 re-vaccinations, making a total 19,388 operations, with a total percentage of success
of 86.43. But it must be recollected, in making this comparison of the success of the
vaccination work of the one class of men with that of the other, that the work of the
ex-inoculators appears to have undergone very little supervision or inspection, whilst
that of the vaccinators was supervised and inspected in a great measure by the medical
officers of the district, and it is presumable that their amount of success is fairly represented
by the figures in the statement. Of the success of the ex-inoculators, as represented, it
can only be taken for what it is worth.

We find, on looking at the statement, that out of a total of 96 ex-inoculators 90 of
them worked in the two districts, Kamrúp (76) and Goálpára (14). These two
districts are conterminous, and each year they appear to offer a fine field for action.

If we look back over the past five years, we learn from the
table in the margin the number of ex-inoculators which have
been employed in the district of Kámrúp each year, and if
they have performed in the same ratio, and with the same
success, the same amount of work as they have during the
past season, then the population of the district, from one end to the other, should at
the present moment be most thoroughly vaccinated, for, on reference to the birth statistics
for 1881, we find births and vaccinations to stand relatively to each other as represented
by the figures in the margin, which show that there were
786 more persons vaccinated during the season of 1881-82,
than were born during the year 1881. I think it would be
more satisfactory if the ex-inoculators were reduced in number and certificates or parwánas
in future given only to those who are known to be more or less trustworthy and reliable men.
For it is to the quality of public vaccination, and not so much to the quantity, that our
attention should, whilst working with our present agency, be most unremittingly directed.