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If all proves to be satisfactory the lymph is then sent out for use, otherwise it is
all destroyed and a fresh animal taken for the purpose.
Every animal is numbered, and each little flask has the number of the calf on it
from which it was taken, so that in case of inquiry everything is known at once about the
animal or the lymph.
This system is as nearly perfect as it is possible for any to be, and as the lymph is
taken from perfectly healthy animals, vaccinated with the greatest care and collected with
every possible precaution, it will be clear to any who has read the objections I have
noted as raised by the natives that it effectually meets and removes most, if not all, of them,
and as the lymph thus prepared keeps well and produces remarkably good vesicles, it is
evident that it economises labour to a great extent and facilitates the operation ; for a man
can carry with him half a dozen of these flasks and move from village to village with ease
and rapidity, and vaccinate many more children in this way than by any other means, and
thus it would be quite possible to reduce the number of Vaccinators required for a district,
and money thus saved would probably cover the expense of obtaining pure vaccine lymph
from a central depôt.
A single establishment of the kind could easily supply the amount for a whole
province at a very small cost, and districts might-, fairly be called upon to assist in its
maintenance in return for receiving whatever lymph they may require.
In this way I believe it is possible to carry on vaccination during the hot weather,
but that is a point which experience alone can decid . Reasoning from analogy I see
nothing impossible in this, for I find that the virus of rabies will keep unimpaired in
vitality for a period of at least five weeks if preserved in neutral sterilized glycerine,
although exposed to considerable heat of weather, and as the vaccine virus is preserved
in a precisely similar manner, there is nothing present to set up putrafaction if sterilization
has been complete; and I have been able in this way to preserve in my private laboratory
many substances of weak vitality for considerable periods so as to have them ready
whenever I may require to use them for experimental purposes.
The advantages of this system may therefore be summed up as follows: —
1st.—It entirely abolishes arm-to-arm vaccination.
2nd.—It obviates any difficulty about obtaining calves in the different districts.
3rd.—It provides lymph as pure as it is possible to obtain, and insures that the
animals from which it. comes are healthy.
4th.—It will immensely facilitate the movements of the Vaccinators and enable
them to perform many more operations.
5th.—It removes the native objections regarding the transmission of diseases
from one child to another, and also, so far as science can prevent it,
the same happening from animals to man.
6th.—It is much less costly than the present system and less troublesome ; for
however easy it. may be to obtain calves for the purpose in some places
it is exceedingly difficult to obtain them in others.
Lastly, it seems quite possible that in this way vaccination can be carried on in the
hot season, and begun at once whenever on outbreak of small-pox is apprehended, for, as
the lymph can be prepared in large quantities in a short time and keeps well, it could be
quickly sent out from the depôt when the demand for it arose.
Lymph prepared in the manner here described is now the only kind in use in
Germany, as there are a number of such institutes in that country, each one furnishing the
lymph for its own province.
Through the kindness of the German military medical authorities I have had the
opportunity of seeing the preparation of the lymph at all stages, and the operations at
the vaccinating centres in Berlin, which are held every week ; and I can thus speak, from
personal observation, with confidence of the efficacy and value of the system. The vesicles
are as fine as any I have seen produced by any other method, and the rapidity and ease
with which the operations are carried on is most remarkable, while the protection afforded
is stated by the German Medical Officers to be as perfect as can he given ; and I believe
that the introduction of such a system into India would prove of the greatest value.
Although our present animal vaccination is a vast stride in advance on the old
arm-to-arm method, still it is very far from perfect, and leaves points for attack by those
who are opposed to vaccination, and who can thus urge plausible reasons for its abolition,
which it is the duty of every medical man to combat and expose by every means in his
power.
For the purpose of preparing this lymph a small amount of apparatus is necessary
for the sterilization and compression of the fluid preparations, but the cost of these
implements is trifling, as a good autoclave for sterilizing under a pressure of two atmos-
pheres can be obtained for about £10 and the porcelain rolling machines can be purchased
in Berlin for about £5 each, so that nothing is necessary but a little instruction in the use
of these machines and a few demonstrations on the method of preparation, which would
enable every province in India to prepare its own lymph at any place where the lymph
depôt was established.