FOR THE YEAR 1878-79.
9
broke out in the Balliaghatta thana, Ballygunge, Shanudar Bazar, Mollye Bustee, Gunga-
ram Bustee, and Chuckerberia.
Prevalence in May and June 1878.—The prevalence of small-pox in these two months
is very remarkable, and Dr. Charles can find no parallel to it from the records of his office.
He has prepared a table showing the deaths from small-pox in Calcutta since 1832,
month by month, and he finds that in each epidemic year the deaths in May and June have
been so few when compared with those of March and April that the epidemic may fairly be
said to have died out in these two months. This year has been quite exceptional, as the
deaths in May nearly equalled those in April, while those in June did not fall far short of
those in March. Dr. Charles attributes the exceptional prevelance of small-pox in May and
June to the coolness of the season in those months. He says that the " hot weather
usually met with at this season of the year desiccates and renders inert the contagion
of small-pox and of all other contagious diseases. This year owing, chiefly to an excep-
tional rainfall, the weather has been cooler, and the climatic agencies which are unfavorable
to the spread of small-pox having been absent, the disease prevailed as it did." Dr. Charles
has prepared a table showing the small-pox mortality, month by month, with the mean
temperature of the month. This table, he maintains, shows that a temperature of almost
70° Farh. allows small-pox to spread with fatal freedom, while a temperature of 80° checks its
progress materially and decreases the death-rate, though it does not stop the disease. He
adds:—" It may be roughly stated that 80° may serve as a sort of border line to show the
point at which a marked influence in exterminating small-pox lies. In general terms, it
may be stated that from this point to five degrees below it a dangerous continuance or even
spread of the small-pox is possible; while from this point to five degrees above it, the
contagion becomes so powerfully effected as to become, if not inert, at least, so enfeebled as
to be able to spread the disease with great difficulty."
Dr. Charles' report has some interesting remarks on meteorology as effecting the spread
of small-pox which are too long to insert here, but states that he has arrived at the conclusion
that a " temperature of 80° Farh. when continued for a short time is not nearly so inimical
to the spread of small-pox as when a similar temperature has been continued over a
succession of weeks. In the latter case even a mean temperature of 80° Farh. seems sufficient
ultimately to cause a very marked decline in the disease. As regards the greater heat of
85° Farh. even a single week of this temperature exercises a marked influence, while a
continuance of it for two or three weeks even arrests the progress of the epidemic in a most
peremptory manner." In my report I shall endeavour to discover whether Dr. Charles'
observations relative to the influence of temperature in stopping small-pox in Calcutta
agree with results obtained in other parts of India. He is anxious that the following
features of interest, connected with the epidemic of small-pox in Calcutta, should be brought
to the notice of Government. He thus writes : " the first example which I shall select shows
that, in a well-protected locality with not a case of small-pox near, unprotected persons fall
victims to this malady, and the neighbourhood may remain uncontaminated, the disease
not spreading from these centres.
" In the Jorabagan thana variola was very prevalent during April, May, and June.
The localities chiefly affected were Jorabagan, Pathooriaghatta, Durmahatta, and Nim-
tollah street. In July and August the disease declined and in September it disappeared.
During the next four months no cases of small-pox came to the notice of the. department.
In the middle of February two cases were reported by the police. As much labour had been
expended in this locality, Baboo Ram Chunder Mitter, the Superintendent of Vaccination for
the Division in which this thana lies, himself made a personal enquiry as to the cause of
the re-appearance of the disease. Both of these cases were at Jorabagan ; the one was an
unprotected child of three from Gya who had only been in Calcutta two months, the other
was a woman who died after having been only 20 days in Calcutta.
" On a search being made for other unprotected persons, only a child of seven months
could be found for vaccination, and the disease did not spread further from these two foci
of contagion.
" The next incident I shall detail is an example of vaccination fighting its own battle and
convincing a small-pox rebellious community of its efficacy. In previous reports I have had
occasion to bring forward the great difficulties experienced when vaccinating in the batcher¬
khannah, a bustee in Narculdangah. In the early part of the present vaccinating season
about sixty children only could be secured in this bustee by the vaccinators. The rest had
been carefully hidden away from them, and could not be found during any of their frequent
incursions when search was being made. In January last small-pox prevailed in the entire
neighbourhood, and invaded the mahulla in which such trouble had been taken to hide away
the children. The disease singled out its victims among the unprotected only, the vaccinated
children escaped. Considerable pains were taken to point out clearly such a gratifying
example of the protective powers of the prophylactic, and the spectacle produced such an
effect on the turbulent persons that had defied the vaccinators and supplied the Superintend-
ent with such an unanswerable argument, that several of those who had hidden away their
children brought them voluntarily out to have them vaccinated.
" Another incident I would likewise record which has been furnished to me by Baboo
Callachund Dey, who is a medical man in large practice in the northern parts of the town.
After small-pox inoculation was prohibited in Calcutta, a few were still so wedded to the
practice that they removed their children out of the town in order to have them protected