36
Such of the Force as were vaccinated here gave us abundance of fresh vaccine lymph,
with which we could vaccinate every one that applied for vaccination during some of the
last months of the past year, but so soon as that source of supply was exhausted we were
as badly off for lymph as ever, and it was the greater pity as this want occurred at the
very time it was most needed, when, on account of the setting in of the small-pox
season, the number of applicants for the operation began to increase.
Nothing short of legislative enactment can meet this kind of emergency, and, in
my humble opinion, it behoves the superior authorities to take the subject into their
serious consideration. I am fully persuaded that if an enactment making it compulsory
to get one's child vaccinated, and, when successfully vaccinated, to allow lymph from it,
is passed, it will not meet with any serious opposition from any portion of the commu-
nity on the score of religion, and this, in my humble opinion, is the only thing worth
paying any attention to. My experience, and the experience of every officer of the
Vaccine Department, has shown us, beyond any possibility of being deceived, the great
eagerness and anxiety shown by almost all classes of the community to get their children
vaccinated. The only drawback is in the insufficiency of good lymph wherewith to
carry on the operations. Inconvenience and trouble are the only things that
could at all seriously be pleaded by anybody against allowing lymph to be taken ;
and, as matters at present stand, the rich and well-to-do people receive, as they consider
it, as a matter of right all the advantages of vaccination without in the least partici-
pating in the troubles and inconveniences necessarily attending upon it; for, secure in the
knowledge of their being beyond the reach of any molestation from the Vaccinators,
they can afford to laugh at their impotent attempts at securing a supply of lymph
from the arms of their children. Should the poorer people be vaccinated in preference
to these rich folks, they know that they have but to represent the matter to
the superior authorities, who, they believe, cannot but take notice of what, appa-
rently, is a great dereliction of duty on the part of the Superintendent. As it is, the
richer and upper classes of the community have it all their own way, reaping all the
advantages of vaccination at the expense of the poorer and lower classes. I do not see
why the convenience of the rich, well-to-do upper classes should be respected more than
that of the poorer, lower classes ; and as legislative enactment would go far to equalise
matters and bring all to a level, it would establish vaccination on a sounder basis, which
could not fail soon to extend its benefits over the entire length and breadth, not only of
the City of Bombay, but of the whole Presidency; thus holding completely under sway,
if not quite eradicating, the fell disease small-pox, which now annually numbers its
victims by thousands, notwithstanding the best efforts of the superior authorities.
During the past year we received from the different Superintendents of Vaccina-
tion 144 charged capillary tubes, and had, in our turn, to supply lymph to different
persons, the Abyssinian Field Force included, to the extent of 484 charged ivory
points, 4 pairs of glasses, 121 capillary tubes, and 4 scabs.
The subordinates have all steadily worked on during the period under report.