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MEMORANDUM.
BY SURGEON-MAJOR C. LITTLE, M.D., SANITARY COMMISSIONER, HYDERABAD
ASSIGNED DISTRICTS.
In accordance with the instructions conveyed in Government of India Home Depart-
ment letter No. 347 of the 6th November 1890, an experiment was undertaken to test
the value of lanoline vaccine paste prepared according to the method devised by Surgeon-
Major W. G. King, lately officiating as Sanitary Commissioner for Madras.
The results of the experiment are set forth in two statements. No. I shows the result
of a series of operations on calves for the purpose of obtaining the necessary lymph supply,
and No. II the result of the vaccine paste in the hands of several operators.
The final result may thus be summed up. From 16 calves operated on, some 1,539
grains of vaccine paste were manufactured. With this virus 2,830 vaccinations were per-
formed, the ratio of success obtained being 72.7 per cent.
The paste was used with good results up to 44 days, and would probably have retained
its vitality for a longer period.
The difference in result obtained in the hands of different observers was doubtless due,
in a great measure, to want of care and expertness on the part of the operators.
In the successful cases, the resulting cicatrices were typical of good vaccination, but
the paste appears to produce more inflammation than the pure lymph direct from the calf.
The chief difficulty experienced in the preparation of the paste was in regard to the
yield of lymph afforded by the calf. In some instances nearly all the inoculations proved
successful, but in others only a few succeeded, so that it was impossible to calculate on
obtaining a given quantity of lymph from any one animal ; this, however, may have been
due to something in the surrounding conditions or circumstances of experiment which
greater experience would obviate.
The experiment, so far as it went, proves, however, the main point at issue ; i.e., that the
vaccine paste thus prepared will bear transport to a distance, and will retain its vitality
sufficiently long to render it capable of subserving all the requirements of the department,
thus fully confirming the practical value of Dr. King's discovery.
This system of paste vaccine is admirably suited for such places where, owing to the
prejudices of the people or difficulty in obtaining calves, the use of stored lymph is indis-
pensable ; or where large supplies of lymph are required on an emergency to check an out-
break of epidemic small-pox.
In Berar, where vaccination work is now entirely carried on with pure animal lymph
direct from the calf, it would be rather a retrograde step to substitute preserved for fresh
lymph, and would besides be much more expensive.
For some years to come the present system can be more usefully carried on, approved of
and helped by the people, without any extra expenditure to Government and with satis-
factory results as to quality and quantity of work. At present, the people are with the
department in contributing calves, on loan, for raising the required lymph supply ; but should
eventually difficulty arise in connection with this arrangement, we can then fall back on
the system of paste manufacture.
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