xxxii
Circular No. 338, dated Calcutta, the 7th June 1894.
From—SURGEON-LIEUT.-COLONEL W. H. GREGG, M. B., Sanitary Commissioner for
Bengal,
To—All Civil Surgeons of Districts.
IT is quite clear from an inspection of the registers maintained at the Calcutta and
Darjeeling animal vaccination depôts that these institutions are not being fully utilized. The
object of establishing them was to reduce the system of arm-to-arm vaccination, against
which there are objections as much as possible by supplying Civil Surgeons and others
responsible for vaccination with calf lymph preserved in lanoline. It is impossible at present,
for financial and other reasons, to substitute bovine for human lymph altogether, but a first
step in this direction may be attained by Civil Surgeons indenting more largely and more
frequently than they do at present on the animal vaccination depôts for lanoline vaccine paste.
Subject, therefore, to any orders that may hereafter be issued by Government as the result
of the experiments which are now being made in a few selected districts of vaccination direct
from village calves, and of vaccination from kids, the following rules and regulations are
issued for the information and guidance of Civil Surgeons as Superintendents of Vaccination.
2. In the first place it is desirable that each district, for the purposes of lymph supply,
should be attached to one or other of the two animal vaccination depôts, as at present, in the
absence of any such system, Civil Surgeons not knowing to which depôt they should apply,
indent on whichever occurs to them first. Thus it happens that indents from Jalpaiguri and
other places in the Rajshahi and Patna Divisions, which ought to be sent to the Darjeeling
depôt, are sent to the Calcutta depôt for compliance, while indents from districts situated in
the Presidency, Burdwan, and Dacca Divisions, which ought to be sent to Calcutta, are sent
to Darjeeling. In future the following rule should be strictly observed. The 24 districts
comprised within the Rajshahi, Patna, Bhagalpur, and Chota Nagpur Divisions should indent
on the Darjeeling depôt, while the 23 districts (including the South Lushai Hills) within the
Presidency, Burdwan, Chittagong, Dacca, and Orissa Divisions should send in their indents to
the Calcutta depôt.
3. During the recess months, i.e., from 1st April to 30th September, when vaccination
is almost entirely suspended, only emergent indents need be sent in to the depôts for lymph
required to stamp out outbreaks of small-pox, or for any other special purpose. There is
always a stock of lymph in the depôts from which such indents can be complied with at once.
During the working season, from 1st October to 31st March, indents should be made on the
depôts by the Civil Surgeon regularly once a month, up to the limit which will presently be
prescribed, in order that the supply of bovine lymph may be periodically renewed from lano-
line vaccine paste sent out fresh from the depôts. At the time of making the indent the
Civil Surgeon should state definitely whether, to save time, he would like any portion of the
lymph to be sent direct to any particular officer in any outlying part of the district, or whether
the whole of it should be sent to him (the Civil Surgeon) for distribution. It should be borne
in mind that it is not the business of the depôts to distribute lymph to every one separately
for whom it is required, but it will in special cases undertake the despatch direct to a few
localities remote from head-quarters which the Civil Surgeon may name. When the lymph
is received it should be distributed without delay to as many vaccinators as there is a sufficient
quantity for, and to every Assistant Surgeon or Hospital Assistant at a dispensary or at a
subdivision or in charge of a jail, and the Civil Surgeon should make it his business to see
or to satisfy himself that fresh bovine lymph is really started once a month, and that the
lymph obtained from arm-to-arm vaccination is not used longer than is inevitable.
One grain of lanoline vaccine paste is sufficient for the vaccination of from two to four
subjects in four points each, and the paste, if properly kept in a cool place, is potent for from
20 to 30 days, but of course the sooner it is used after receipt the better.
The bottles in which the lymph is supplied should invariably be returned to the depôt, as
they are expensive.
In addition to the depôt form with which the lymph is supplied, the Civil Surgeon
should keep up in his office a ledger in the following form showing the date and amount of
lymph supplied to every vaccinator or medical officer, and the result:—
Officer to whom
supplied.
1
Date of supply.
2
Amount of supply.
3
Number
vaccinated.
4
Date of vaccination.
5
Result.
6
4. It remains to prescribe the quantity of lymph which each district may indent for
once a month during the working season. The depôts as at present constituted, are not