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Circular No. 392, dated Calcutta, the 9th February. 1895.
From—BRIGADE-SURGEON W. H. GREGG, M B., DIP. PUB. HEALTH, CAMB.,
M.R.C.P., LOND., - Sanitary Commissioner for Bengal,
To—All Civil Surgeons.
IN continuation of this office Circular No. 4T. of the 29th September 1894, I have
the honour to state that, as some Civil Surgeons have experienced difficulty in getting
their Inspectors of vaccination and paid vaccinators to vaccinate calves for the purpose of
raising lymph, I thought it desirable to obtain, through the Magistrate of Nadia, the opinion
of the Nadia Pandits on the religious aspect of the subject. It will be seen from the
accompanying documents (viz., the"opinion of the Pandits given in Sanskrit," together
.with translations in Bengali and English) that the Pandits, after mature consideration, have
deliberately held that there is no objection on the score of religion to the vaccination of
calves. Such objections, or objections to the use of calf lymph on the score of religious
scruples, will not therefore be listened to in future.
2. In connection with this subject, the Bengal Government thought it desirable that
I should enquire from the Sanitary Commissioner of the Punjab whether similar difficulties
were experienced in that province when calf-vaccination was first introduced there. It will
be seen from the accompanying copy of Dr. Roe's reply, No. 5478 of the 13th December
1894, that some difficulty was at first experienced in that Province, but that through the
energy and tact of the Civil Surgeons it was overcome.
3. I have now to request that if in future any of your Inspectors, paid vaccinators,
Civil Hospital Assistants, or other Government servants, object to vaccinating calves, you
will at once bring the matter to my notice for orders. In your efforts to induce licensed
vaccinators to use calf lymph, caution and prudence should be observed. These men, as you
are aware, are not Government servants, and they have many difficulties to contend against
in carrying on vaccination in villages. We should, therefore, as far as we possibly can, help
and support them in their work, and it will hardly be possible at first to force them to
vaccinate calves or to use calf' lymph if they object to do so. It is to be hoped, however,
that, as the system developes and its advantages become more widely recognised, the people
themselves will prefer vaccination from the calf to vaccination from arm-to-arm.
4. It has been suggested that, where there is a strong local feeling against the
vaccination of cow calves, the calves of buffaloes should be employed. The only objection
to this that I know of—and it is a serious one—is that the pigment contained in the lymph
extracted from buffalo calves renders it difficult to detect the presence of blood; nevertheless
it may, in some districts, be found desirable to accept this disadvantage and to employ
buffalo calves instead of cow calves. You should use your discretion in the matter.
5. Lastly, I would draw your special attention to the first part of paragraph 4 of
Dr. Roe's letter. It is essential that you should enlist the sympathy of the members of
municipal committees in starting calf-vaccination in towns, and in no case should anything
be done without first consulting the Magistrate of the district.
No. 5478, dated Lahore, the 13th December 1894.
From—SURGEON-LIEUT.-COL. W. A. CRAWFORD ROE, F.R.C.S., Sanitary Commis-
sioner, Punjab,
To—The Sanitary Commissioner, Bengal.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter No. 6955, dated 4th December
1894, and its enclosure, in which you state that " the Bengal Government would be glad to
know if any similar religious difficulty was experienced in the Punjab when calf vaccination
was introduced there some time ago."
Circular No: 10 of 1886.
Circulars Nos. 7 and 8 of 1890.
2. I have much pleasure in forwarding, for your perusal, the documents noted in the
margin, which will give you some idea of the difficulties that
we experienced in starting animal lymph vaccination in this
province ; but I should observe at the outset that here, in the
Punjab, we always use buffalo calves, and not cow calves, as our vaccinifers. To the latter there
has been, and always will be, perhaps, caste and religious prejudices, but to the former there
is little or none. How we overcame all the religious scruples of the people was by tact and
persuasion; for instance, when Doctor Center, Civil Surgeon of Lahore, introduced calf lymph
vaccination in Lahore city and suburbs, he told the people that they could take it or not, as
they chose. There was not the slightest attempt made to conceal the source of the lymph.
Doctor Center first tried the calves m his own compound, introducing lymph from a European
child by puncture, and for the first few days only Europeans were vaccinated from this lymph.
It was known that Muhammadans were not likely to make any objection, but it was
astonishing to find that in a course of a few days many Hindus, especially the best educated
and the highest castes, accepted it. The same year (1885) this method of vaccination was
tried in the municipal town of Gujrat by Doctor Mulrony. In his report Doctor Mulrony
remarks:—" Only the Muhammadan children were vaccinated from the heifer; the Hindus