( 4 )
to 20,417, against 14,061 in the previous year, the following districts having
suffered the most:—
Midnapore ... ...
Cuttack ... ...
Puri
...
...
Gaya ... ...
Lohardaga ... ...
No. of deaths.
5,228
4,578
1,623
1,158
1,027
Proportion of
population protected
per mille.
154
142
132
88
209
The following districts suffered the least:—
Darjeeling ... ...
Birbhum ... ...
Pabna ... ...
Jalpaiguri ... ...
Murshidabad ... ...
Bhagalpur ... ...
Total No. of
deaths.
2
4
7
9
15
15
Proportion of
population protect-
ed per mille.
460
175
221
165
229
147
In Rajshahi, where no deaths occurred from small-pox, about 229 per
1,000 of the population had been protected. As was noticed in last year's
Resolution, notwithstanding the imperfection of the statistics both as regards
mortality and vaccine operations, the figures show on the whole that increased
protection does carry with it as a general rule an appreciable reduction in the
death-rate. This result will tend to be more conspicuous as time goes on, and
a larger proportion of the population comes to be protected.
Working of the Animal Vacci-
nation Depôt.
11. The Lieutenant-Governor has learnt with satisfaction that the working
of the Central Animal Vaccination Depôt in Calcutta
has improved under the charge of Assistant Sur-
geon Umesh Chunder Ghose, and that good and efficient lymph is now
turned out in large quantities. The long-pending proposal to establish a second
animal vaccine depôt at Darjeeling was carried into effect during the year
under the immediate supervision of Dr. Waddell, and this depôt is now in
full working order. Operations were commenced on the 21st November 1891,
and up to 31st March 1892 thirty-one calves had been vaccinated, and 965 tubes
of lymph issued. During the year, particular attention was paid to the
subject of producing good lymph, and lymph was prepared and stored for
experimental purposes in the following forms:—
1. Simple lymph, capillary stored.
2. Simple lymph, capillary stored, sealed at either end with glycerine.
3. Lymph pulp, glycerised.
4. Lymph pulp, lanolized.
Of these, only the fourth method was found to yield really satisfactory
results. The preparation of glycerised lymph is held to be unsuitable for
India, and its production has been discontinued in both the Calcutta and the
Darjeeling depôts. Lanoline on the other hand has proved successful, and is
pronounced to be the most efficient mode of preserving and diluting lymph in
India. This conclusion is based upon the results of a number of experiments
which appear to have been carefully recorded.
12. In Dr. Gregg's opinion the Vaccination Department is now in a position
to supply the whole of Bengal with bovine lymph. If this be so, and if the lymph
produced is of a really sound and uniform character, the Lieutenant-Governor
trusts that the results will justify the expectation, and remove from men's minds
that distrust of the lymph which hitherto has proved the main obstacle to the
expansion of the operations of the Department. It now remains to organize a
rapid mode of despatch of the lymph so as to reach vaccinators in remote places
before it has gone bad, and the Lieutenant-Governor trusts that no time will be
lost in doing this.
13. With a view to secure the successful introduction of lanoline lymph,
Dr. Waddell, Superintendent of Vaccination, Darjeeling Circle, who had made
the subject his special study, was deputed to visit all districts in Bengal and
instruct the officers of the Vaccination Department in the use of an instrument,
called the scarifier, which is considered by some authorities to be more suitable