16
Copy of a letter from Mr. J. E. Harrison, Civil Medical Officer, Sumbulpore, to
the Superintendent General of Vaccination, Central Provinces and Berars, Nag-
pore,—No. 1038 of 1869, dated Sumbulpore 29th May.
I have the honor to submit the Report of the Vaccine Operations carried on in
this district during the past year under my superintendence, and with the aid of the special
establishment sanctioned by the Government of India, in Financial Resolution No. 2066, dated
28th August 1868.
2 Intimation of this establishment having been sanctioned was received early in October,
and I at once addressed you on the subject of a Superintendent, and entertained nine men as
Vaccinators. Three of these men had been Dressers in the hospital here, and were already able to
operate satisfactorily ;and the remaining six were men of the Sooadie or Kullar caste, who used
to practise as " Baids," and were all formerly Innoculators, the parctice in this district being,
that men of this caste only follow this profession. These men were trained and instructed
under my own superintendence, and are now thoroughly acquainted with the use both of the-
needle and the lancet.
3. During October I was chiefly occupied in thus training the staff of Vaccinators and
in collecting lymph, and the operations performed were mostly at the Dispensary here and
in the villages immediately around Sumbulpore; but in the following month I was able
to commence work in the district generally.
4. As has been explained in former reports on the subject of vaccination the prejudices of
the people against it have been now completely overcome, and they are all anxiously desirous
of having their children vaccinated, so that my only care was how the estalishment at my
disposal might be best utilized and be most effectually kept under my supervision In this
view I divided the Vaccinators into four parties . the first party proceeded from Sumbulpore
along the east bank of the Mahanuddy to the northwards; the second party worked direct to
the eastward of Sumbulpore; the third party worked southward along the east bank of the
Mahanuddy, and then crossing the river some 14 miles below this, proceeded westward through
the Dekhunteer pergunnah, and the fourth party I sent, in consequence of a report that small-
pox had broken out there, to Ambabhona—a village in the north-west corner of the district;
and although the report as to the appearance of small-pox turned out to be unfounded, I
retained this party in that neighbourhood during the rest of the season.
5. In conducting their operations the Vaccinators have followed the same course of
proceedure as has hitherto been found to succeed so well in this district. They gave intimation
to the Gountiahs or Malgoozars of the villages in the neighbourhood that they would be at one
of the larger villages on a certain date, and arrangements were then made by the Gountiahs for
collecting all the children at this village, where they were vaccinated on the day appointed; and
in this way the children of 401 villages in all were vaccinated during the season. Each party
submitted weekly reports of the operations performed to me, and by frequent tours I was
enabled to exercise a general supervision over the working of the whole establishment, and to
inspect and examine their work in 353 of the 401 villages above referred to. In the majority
of these cases I was able to time my visits so as to see the patients some five or six days after the
operation had been performed, and I was gratified to find that in nearly every case the operation
had been successfully performed, a good vaccine disease having been established and the
pustules running the regular course to perfection. In some cases, especially among the lower
classes, the pustules when on the decline degenerated into abcesses and ulcers, but these soon
healed when treated by poulticing, followed by a dressing of oxide of zine ointment. But few
modified cases came under my observation and the lymph was generally fresh and good. In
February last the supply appeared to have lost its vigour somewhat, and the vesicles formed did
not appear perfect. I was fortunately able, however, to procure a fresh supply from Nagpore in a
short time and since then the operations have been very successful. My supplies of lymph had to
be procured chiefly from Nagpore and Calcutta, as the people of this district have still the
greatest objection to give up the crusts of the vesicles, even after they have come to perfection,
and to allow any lymph to be collected. The reason of this is that they still adhere to many of
the ceremonies that they used to perform when they were in the habit of innoculating their
children, and one of these was that when the vesicles had dried, they collected the crusts and
either buried them or threw them into the nearest stream, and now they think it necessary
to do the same with the crust of the vaccine vesicle. Even this superstition is, however, now
wearing away, and latterly I was able to get both lymph and crusts without much difficulty.