10
details of which were not received by this office, and which are, therefore, not
included in the annual returns.
Calf lymph vaccination
in Lahore and Gujrát
districts.
20. In last year's Vaccination Report it was pointed out that Civil
Surgeons often experienced great difficulty in keeping
up arm to arm vaccination, in consequence of parents
being often very unwilling to allow their children to be
used as vaccinifers. In Lahore, more especially, the Civil Surgeon found it
very difficult to keep up the supply of lymph. There was an epidemic of
small-pox in the city, parents were anxious to have their children vaccinated,
but lymph was not forthcoming.
In order to obviate this difficulty,
Doctor Center resolved to vaccinate calves with human lymph, and to use the
lymph got from them for vaccinating children.
The experiment was made,
and, after one or two failures, calves were successfully vaccinated, and, with
lymph taken from them, 112 Muhammadan and Hindú children were vaccinated.
Doctor Mulroney, the Civil Surgeon of Gujrát, experienced the same
difficulty about getting lymph for arm to arm vaccination, and he also had
recourse to calf lymph, with which he vaccinated 2,177 children, and 98.48 per
cent. of these were successfully vaccinated.
The measures taken to
introduce calf lymph vacci-
nation in the other districts
of the province.
21. As these experiments had been so successful, and as the difficulty
of getting lymph was experienced in most of the districts
of the Province, a circular was sent to all Civil Surgeons
informing them that Doctors Center and Mulroney had,
during the past season, successfully vaccinated with animal
lymph, both Muhammadan and Hindú children, with the consent of their
parents. Extracts were given from Doctor Center's and Doctor Mulroney's
reports in which the methods followed by them were distinctly laid down,
and Civil Surgeons were recommended to try calf lymph vaccination next
season, provided parents and guardians agreed to accept it. As, however,
certain classes of the community might object to calf lymph, Civil Surgeons
were directed to consult the Deputy Commissioners of their districts, before
they had recourse to the new method, and they were also asked to consult
the Committees of Municipal towns, before commencing animal lymph vacci-
nation in the different Municipalities.
As the Hindús of most districts objected to the innovation, Civil
Surgeons were recommended by most of the Deputy Commissioners to abstain
from using animal lymph for the present. In a few districts tentative experi-
ments were made, but in the districts of Lahore and Gujrát only was calf lymph
vaccination employed to any extent.
The plan adopted by the
Civil Surgeon of Lahore.
22. The Civil Surgeon of Lahore has a great many duties to perform,
so that he can supervise vaccination, even in the city,
in a general way only. He accordingly put vaccination
directly under the charge of Assistant Surgeon Brij Lal Ghose, Rai Bahádur,
and, owing, in part, to the tact and zeal displayed by him, the method of animal
vaccination was successfully carried on in Lahore, in which, during the season,
1,259 children were vaccinated by lymph taken from the calf or young buffalo.
Doctor Center in his report says :—
" Instructions were given to the city vaccinators to tell the people who
" wanted their children done, that, if they agreed to give lymph, it would be
"done from other people's children, but, if they did not, those who agreed would
"have their children done first, and that, if any one did not submit to give
"lymph, he could go to the Medical College compound, and get it done from
"the calf, and that, in that case, no lymph would be asked for. The anxiety
" for vaccination and the objection to giving lymph were so strong, that a very
" large number had recourse to the calf, to which they had to bring their
" children half a mile from the city."
Hindús consider that the cow is a sacred animal, and many of them
did not come to have their children vaccinated by lymph taken from it. The
buffalo, however, is not sacred, and, as an experiment, Doctor Center vaccinated
a young buffalo, hoping that he would be able to use lymph taken from it, and
thus get rid of the difficulty regarding the sacred animal.