Extracts from the Report of the Presidency Vaccine Establishment by SURGEON
T. E. CHARLES, M.D., Superintendent-General, for the year ending 31st March 1870.
* Sub-Assistant Surgeons.
Progress of vaccination.—During the past year most satisfactory progress has been made
in extending vaccination among persons who had not previously adopted the practice. Both
among those who habitually refused protection of any sort, and among those who used
previously to have their children inoculated, considerable numbers have this year been
vaccinated. For the last five years it has been repeatedly brought to notice that the only
thing which prevents a considerable number of the population from being won over to accept
protection from small-pox is the want of efficient agents to present vaccination to them in
such a way that their minds may be influenced by the representations made. The experience
of more than half a century has shown, that while the solicitations of a medical man going
from house to house are listened to and effect the object in view, uneducated vaccinators can
make no impression on a metropolitan population, and their pleadings are unheeded. This is
the first year that two at least of the three medical men,* who are
superintendents of vaccination in Calcutta, have been engaged through-
out the year in extending vaccination, and the results justify the expectations which were
formed.
In the town, exclusive of cases of re-vaccination, and cases in which the result was not
ascertained, 4,785 persons were vaccinated, against 3,914 last year ; the increase being 22.25
per cent. Calculating in the same way, 7,320 persons were vaccinated in the suburbs, against
5,927 last year; shewing an increase of 23.50 per cent.
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Character and success of the vaccination.—Throughout the year the character of the
vaccination has been uniformly good. Even throughout the hottest weather and rains a high
standard of excellence was preserved. On the breaking out of small-pox it became thus
possible to vaccinate at once extensively without any fear as to the results, and with full con-
fidence in the protection thus afforded.
One of the most satisfactory advances which has taken place of late years in conducting
vaccination in Lower Bengal consists in the power we now possess of keeping up a much
more perfect vesicle during the unfavorable months of the non-vaccinating season. By
vaccinating with great care it is now found possible to ensure the full specification of the virus
without inducing the inflammatory results, which, even when they did not interfere materially
with the protection afforded, justly caused a great dislike to be felt to vaccination owing to
the ulcerated state in which the arms remained for some time after vaccination had been
practised.
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The high percentage of successful cases attained to in previous years has this year also
been reached. In calculating the results obtained in cases which had not previously been
protected, and excluding those in which the result was not ascertained from the calculation, it
is found that out of 4,785 cases in the town, in which the result was known, 4,702 cases proved
successful, the ratio being 98.26 per cent. of success. Last year the ratio of success in the
town was reported at 98.40.
In the same way in the suburbs, excluding the work done in the emigration depôts, out
of 7,320 cases in which the result was known 7,209 were successful, giving a ratio of 98.48,
against 98.5 last year. My belief is, that even the apparent falling off in the town of a
fraction of one per cent. is unreal, as at the time the mistake occurred I traced that a few cases
of re-vaccination had been erroneously entered in the nominal register as primary cases, and,
without leading to confusion in the returns, the error could not be remedied. Another cause
was detected as leading to a slightly less favorable percentage than would otherwise have
been shewn. Late in the season, while vaccinating in the homes of some of the more
respectable portions of the community, a higher percentage of failure was met with than that
which was usual. In searching for the cause, I found that owing to the bazaars having been
so thoroughly vaccinated early in the season to protect them from small-pox which existed
near them, the vaccinators were unable to find subjects in the neighbourhood to provide a
sufficient supply of virus, and, as a result, a few failures were met with. The superintendent
of the division in which both of these occurrences took place is of course aware that even
such minutiæ have not escaped my personal attention. Neither of these causes, which
to a small degree diminished the percentage of success this year, need necessarily take place
again; and if the improvement in the working which has otherwise marked the operations