5
5thly.—The addition of a second karkoon to the Superintendent's office.
6thly.—The admission of members of the Vaccine Department to the benefits of the Pen-
sion Rules.
7thly.—The increase of four members to the permanent establishment of the Circle.
To the foregoing causes, which I have assigned as bringing about this increase, I must
add one more which I believe has had an important influence, namely a system, I established
on joining the Circle in 1863, of granting pecuniary rewards to those vaccinators who have
distinguished themselves for industry and good conduct during the year. The fund from
which I am able to make these rewards is the accumulation of the fines and forfeiture of pay
for misconduct during the year. In this manner I found at the end of 1863 a balance of
Rs. 68. I am aware that this plan is, strictly speaking, irregular, and that the money so accu-
mulated should have been paid to the credit of Government. However irregular it may be,
it is the very reverse of any misappropriation. The money was originally sanctioned for
vaccinating purposes, and is expended in promoting the same ; if repaid to Government the
amount would be almost inappreciable in the general estimates of the year, while appropriated
in the manner I have described, it purchases the largest results at the smallest possible cost.
In the month of September last I received a supply of capillary tubes for the preservation
and transmission of liquid lymph. I have not as yet had sufficient experience with them
to enable me to make anything like a satisfactory report of their value in this country,
but of this I feel satisfied, that for general use among the vaccinators they are totally
unsuited. The mere charging the tube is simple enough ; but closing the extremities, and
preventing over-heating of its contents, is a much more delicate operation than is generally
supposed, and for which the coarse country oil light is quite unfitted. From the lymph
supplied to me in tubes on two or three occasions from Bombay, when I was Civil Surgeon
of Tanna, I could never succeed in establishing vesicles, and I believe the same has been
remarked by other medical officers, who have tried tubes charged in this country. If further
experience proves this to be correct, the cause no doubt is to be found in the fact, that in the
tropics the lymph in the tube is already some 35 or 40 degrees higher than in a temperate
climate : the additional heat required for the melting of the glass and closure of the extre-
mities, rapidly conducted to the interior of the tubes, raises the temperature of its contents
to a point which destroys the vitality of the lymph. To remedy this, I intend shortly to
try some experiments of closing the tubes with hard varnish, which would obviate the objec-
tions to the heat-destroying theory.
Seeing, however, the important results of a single capillary tube from Europe, given by
a German missionary some years ago to Mr. Mills, from which single source it would be
impossible to state how many thousands or tens of thousands have been protected from
small-pox, I would strongly suggest the advisability of obtaining at regular intervals (say
quarterly) supplies of vaccine lymph in tubes from the National Vaccine Institution in
England. This plan has the threefold recommendation of being able to rely upon the
quality of the lymph, and involving but little trouble and less expense. These tubes on
their arrival in Bombay might be distributed among the Superintendents of Circles;
thus there would be a continuous supply of fresh matter coming into the country, and
the fear which has been expressed, that the prophylactic in the course of years in a hot
climate wears itself out and ceases to possess its special properties, would be removed.
Vaccination under the Native Chiefs exhibits a more satisfactory increase than I had
expected, which I am inclined to attribute to the fact that, during the latter part of 1863