7
vaccinated ought very soon to reach a minimum. Provided the children are healthy, the
quality of lymph under one year is preferable to that over one year ; and I was sorry to find
some vaccinators using lymph taken from adults.
Decrease.
3. In the Table heading this report, the decrease shown against the Government
establishment is an apparent one only, and is accounted
for by the transfer to the Local Funds, as noticed in
para. 1 above. When taken in connection with the Local Funds' increase, the figures show a
total increase of 11,131 persons vaccinated, exclusive of Dispensaries.
Increase.
4. The increase is due partly to increased exertions on the part of vaccinators, partly
to the work of a few additional vaccinators, and partly,
no doubt, to the imposition of fines by my predecessor,
Dr. Roche, for carelessness and negligence. This has stimulated vaccinators to work, and
has produced an increase in the number of operations ; but it must remain in a measure
doubtful whether the quantity and the quality of the work have advanced pari passu.
Lymph.
5. In November of last year, lymph in tubes was received from the Superintendent
General of Vaccination sent from England.
Of 8
operations performed by Abdul Kadar in the Superin-
tendent's presence, 1 was unsuccessful ; the vesicles on the sixth day were reported 'very
good' in 6, and 'good' in 1 ; 34 punctures resulted in 23 vesicles, or 2 in 3. In January
I received some tubes from the Superintendent General of Vaccination, to be tested. I
myself operated on a few selected children with very indifferent results. Dattu Balappa, of
Hubli Táluká, to whom one of the tubes was given, also reported unfavorably on the lymph.
6. Over the Circle generally the lymph in use has been reported good. Some of
what I have been able to examine personally did not seem to be so good as it ought to have
been, especially what was preserved on plates.
Plates.
7. A large proportion of the Vaccinators whose work I have inspected, employ plates
without understanding how to use them, and this, too,
although each vaccinator has been supplied with a
Marathí Circular of instructions from the Superintendent General, regarding the essential
points of vaccination. I do think many of the unsuccessful operations and imperfect protec-
tions given are from the use of indifferent lymph badly kept. I have seen vaccinators
charge plates, but the exception is to do it well. They carry them about in their daftars in
the most careless manner, as if no more care were necessary after laying on the lymph ; and
instead of making use of the lymph so preserved as soon after as possible, they continue to
carry it about from day to day, until it becomes useless.
8. On two different occasions, two vaccinators in my presence covered one plate with
lymph taken from two children before I could discover the fraud—mixing them as an artist
would do the pigments on his palette. I don't know whether this process has been noticed
before, but it seems contrary to the very spirit of vaccination and to any right principle in
the matter. No mixture of lymph, even from children as nearly equal as can be in the
essential points of health, can ever be equal in protective power to genuine vaccine from one
healthy child.
Points.
9. On the same score of probable carelessness and inefficiency in using them, points
seem to me to be objectionable. Vaccinators, as a rule, are
but of limited intelligence, and it is sometimes very
difficult to make them understand the "why" and "wherefore."