2
6. The causes of the decrease in vaccination operations have already been
stated in paragraph 2 of the Review by the Lieutenant-Governor on the Vaccina-
tion Report for the year 1900-01. Briefly, they have been a decrease in
the number of births, scarcity, malarial fever, mortality among cattle which
has made it difficult to get buffalo-calves, return of persons to the Native States
who had sought refuge in our famine camps, and the employment of the
Deputy Sanitary Commissioner and of Vaccinators on plague duty, to which in
the case of the year 1901-02 may be specially added unusual sickness, which
rendered a number of children unfit for vaccination, and the continued existence
and disastrous spread of plague in the Province, and in the principal Native
States, which caused a suspension of vaccination operations in certain badly-
infected tracts, where, the people being in a disturbed frame of mind, it was
thought the presence of Vaccinators might lead to trouble. The Lieutenant-
Governor, however, agrees with the Sanitary Commissioner that the plague-
infected parts of the Province cannot be left unprotected against small-pox, and
he desires that an effort should be made to carry on vaccination in the infected
places during the coming cold weather. The disability that the Department has
suffered under from the employment of the Deputy Sanitary Commissioner on
plague duty having now been removed by the appointment of Lieutenant
W. F. Harvey, M.B., as a whole-time officer to that post, the Lieutenant-Governor
hopes to see an improvement in vaccination results generally.
7. The Vaccination Act was not extended to any town during the year
1900-01. With reference to the remarks in paragraph 3 of the letter from the
Government of India in the Home Department, No. 1926, dated the 18th of
October 1901, to the effect that strenuous efforts should be made towards the
improvement of vaccination in towns, the Lieutenant-Governor observes from
paragraph 28 of the present Report that the matter is engaging the attention of
the Sanitary Commissioner. It should not be lost sight of.
8. With reference to the remarks in paragraph 39 of the Report as to
the relative merits of vaccination performed with vaseline vaccine paste and
animal lymph, the Lieutenant-Governor will be glad to receive the further remarks
of the Sanitary Commissioner after the paste has been tried under more favour-
able circumstances than seem to have presented themselves in the trial in the
Miánwáli District.
9. As regards the remarks in paragraph 29, the Lieutenant-Governor
regrets that it has not yet been found possible to carry out the instructions
of the Government of India in regard to a trial of glycerinated lymph. The
remarks in paragraph 15 as to the failure of this lymph in the Ráwalpindi Dis-
trict are not very encouraging, but now that the Department has again a whole-
time Deputy Sanitary Commissioner and the necessary apparatus at its disposal,
the trial ordered by the Government of India should be undertaken without
further delay.
10. Consequent on the employment of Captain Wilkinson, I.M.S., on
plague work, Lieutenant-Colonel C. J. Bamber, I.M.S., was almost without
assistance in supervising the work of the Department throughout the year. The
inspection work performed by himself and by such of the Civil Surgeons as were
not prevented from attending to the duty from causes beyond their control and by
other officers of the Department appears to have been satisfactory. The
Vaccination Department has sustained a severe loss in the death of the late Rái
Bahádur Pandit Bál Kishen, who had been connected with it from the time of its
formation. He possessed great personal influence, and it may be safely said that
his success in Kángra has practically stamped small-pox out of that district.
ORDER.—Ordered, that the above remarks be published in the Punjab
Gazette and be communicated to the Sanitary Commissioner for information and
guidance, with reference to the remarks in paragraphs 6, 7, 8 and 9; also that
they be forwarded with the Report as usual to the Government of India in the
Home Department.
By order of the Hon ble the Lieutenant-Governor,
C. J. HALLIFAX,
Judicial and Genl. Secy. to Govt., Punjab.
Punjab Government Press, Lahore—11-8-02—240.