2
CALCUTTA AND THE SUBURBS.
I am not of opinion that the loss of one agent has led to the falling off;
but should circumstances lead me to conclude that by entertaining another
vaccinator the outturn of work will be increased, a vaccinator will again be
taken on, as any economy in reduction of the subordinate agency is a very false
one if it is attended by a falling off of work which could otherwise have been
overtaken. I can fully acquit the Superintendent of any remissness in this
matter.
Cause of increase.
In the grand total of work done during the year, this falling off does not
show, as there has been an increase of 1,248 cases over last year. This increase
reflects no credit on the vaccine establishment, as it simply depends on an
accidental increase in emigration, over which they have no control.
Quality of the
vaccination.
High ratio
of
success
3. Character and success of the vaccination.—There has been every reason
to be satisfied with the thorough excellence of the virus, which has been kept up
throughout the past year. The extreme care which has been taken to preserve
its quality while transmitting it from person to person has been praiseworthy.
Year by year the ratio of successful cases continues to increase steadily. As
explained before, I attach no importance whatever to this fact, as now for some
years perfection has practically been arrived at, and the improvement shown
by decimal figures from a practical and utilitarian point of view is valueless.
The great point is, that ninety-nine individuals are successfully vaccinated
out of every hundred who submit to the operation. This amount of success
is almost of priceless importance in every place where the population is restless
and suspicious regarding the prophylactic, and, in a place like this metropolis,
where a single death from small-pox in a person who has passed through the
hands of a vaccinator is enough to throw discredit on the whole system, becomes
simply an absolute necessity.
In the town, out of 4,408 primary vaccinations, in which the result was
ascertained, 4,391 proved successful. The ratio of success was thus 99.61,
against 98.85 last year. In the same way in the Suburbs, out of 6,796 cases,
6,772 were successful, giving a ratio of 99.64 of success, the percentage having
in 1870-71 been 99.25.
As year by year the establishment becomes more experienced and trained
to careful work, it is not surprising that high class work should be obtainable.
There is, nevertheless, a certain amount of satisfaction in being able to note that
it has been found possible to keep the men up to the great amount of care
necessary, although familiarity with routine work is apt to engender carelessness.
Animal virus
Its unimpaired ex¬
cellence after 68
transmissions
4. Humanized animal virus.—While experimenting in 1871 with the virus
of cow-pox passed direct from calf to calf, a supply of the lymph so obtained
was introduced into the middle division of the town and Suburbs. The stock
of vaccine thus introduced has been kept free of admixture with any other
virus. In the last report I had seen this recently humanized lymph at its
twelfth transmission, and stated that it in no way differed from virus which had for
generations been passed from arm-to-arm. After another year's experience of
it, I can only pronounce it very perfect, but still not superior to the virus
in ordinary use, the results obtained from the one and from the other being
absolutely identical. A carefully conducted experiment on a large scale, the
operations being performed by a trained establishment, working almost with
the precision of machinery, cannot fail to be of great interest. Besides being
an additional proof to the Government that there is no cause to dread any
degeneration in the quality of vaccine when carefully passed from one person
to another in the plains of Bengal, it should, as far as it is legitimate to argue
from such an experiment, tend to settle the question of the alleged loss of
power of vaccine while passing through the systems of large numbers of the
human race. Up to the 1st April 1872, this stock of virus had reached its
sixty-eighth transmission from the cow.
Small-pox.
5. Small-pox in Calcutta and Suburbs.—During the year under report there
have been only 17 deaths from small-pox in Calcutta, only 2 deaths in the