Proceedings of the Hon'ble the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, in the Home (Medical and Sanitary)
Department, No. 505 S., dated 31st July 1894.
READ —
The Sanitary Commissioner's Report on Vaccination in the Punjab for the year 1893-94.
* District Staff.
Special Staff.
Cantonment Staff.
Dispensary Staff.
REMARKS.—In paragraph 6 of his Report the Sanitary Commissioner
says that there were 1,056,805 vaccinations performed in the Punjab during the
year 1893-94, of which 585,162 were primary vaccinations and 471,643
re-vaccinations. Altogether there are said to have been 230,324 operations more
in the year under review than in the year 1892-93. Excluding, however, the
figures for the Kángra District, as to the accuracy of which the Lieutenant-
Governor entertains doubts, the number of operations performed during the past two
years by the combined vaccination establishment*
in the Province has been (vide Statement No. I A.,
appendix to Statement No. I, and Statement
No. III B.):—
Primary vaccinations ...
Re-vaccinations ... ...
Total ...
Decrease for 1893-94...
1892-93.
550,304
243,951
794,255
1893-94.
564,344
195,799
760,143
34, 112
The increase in the number of primary vaccinations and the decrease in the
number of re-vaccinations is satisfactory with special reference to the remarks on
the subject of re-vaccinations which have been made in the Reviews of the
Reports for the last three years.
Paragraph 6.
2. The figures given for the Kángra District for the year under report,
viz., primary vaccinations 20,818, re-vaccinations
275,844, total 296,662, resemble those of the years
1888-89 and 1889-90 and seem so extraordinary that the Lieutenant-Governor
cannot but feel a doubt as to the alleged large number of re-vaccinations. Steps
are being taken to check them, and the result will be reported to the Government
of India in due course. Meanwhile this Review is submitted as the Report is due
with the Government of India on the 1st proximo, and a letter calling attention to
this has been received from the Home Department.
Paragraph 13.
† Appendix A to the Report.
3. Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick notices with satisfaction the statement that
the use of animal lymph has become almost uni-
versal in the Punjab. In paragraph 25 of the
Report for 1892-93 it was stated that no less than 93 per cent. of the total vaccine
operations were performed with animal lymph. In the present Report it is
stated that the percentage of vaccinations with animal lymph in 1893-94 was 80,
but it is added that the statistics show a more extended employment of this
method of vaccination in every district. This is an obvious discrepancy between
these statements, and the Lieutenant-Governor will be glad if the Sanitary
Commissioner will explain it and give the correct figures for the two years. The
use of the kid as a vaccinifer does not appear to offer much promise, but it
appears from the Report† by Surgeon-Captain
C. H. James that in certain tracts a number of vac-
cinations were performed from donkey lymph. His Honor will be glad if the
Sanitary Commissioner will report more fully on this subject, and in particular say
whether vaccinations can be as successfully performed with donkey lymph as with
lymph taken from calves.
Paragraph 18.
4. The list of places to which the Vaccination Act (XIII of 1880)
was applied during the year 1893-94 is not quite
correct, as the Act was introduced into the Mu-
nicipality of Dera Gházi Khan in the month of February 1893, i.e., before the