Third Annual Report on Vaccine Operations at the Presidency, by SURGEON T. E. CHARLES, M.D.,
Superintendent-General of Vaccination.
1. Submission.—In submitting the third annual report of the Presidency vaccine
establishment, I have to express my satisfaction at the way in which the three sub-assistant
surgeons who are the superintendents for the town and suburbs of Calcutta have discharged
their duties. It is owing to the assiduity with which Baboos Bhoobun Mohun Mitter,
Kally Dass Bose, and Kassy Chunder Dutt, have laboured, that the very remarkable results
to be hereafter detailed have been arrived at. I have to request that their names may be
prominently brought before the notice of Government as most deserving officers. Each
of them had previously been singled out for good service in the appointments in which
they had served; and though the nature of their present duties may not be so striking
in its execution as the cases of lithotomy or the performance of dextrous operations, for
which they used to gain the praise of both medical and civil authorities, yet, judged of by
the results produced, their present duties are of the highest importance. The saving of
life which they were able previously to contribute to was insignificant when compared
to the large mortality from small-pox now so much diminished through their strenuous
exertions.
2. Numbers vaccinated during the year.—The past season has been a very successful
one as regards numbers, though from causes which can be easily explained, the exceptionally
high number of vaccinations in the suburbs last year has not this year been reached.
Excluding re-vaccination cases, and those in which the result was not ascertained, 4,898
persons were vaccinated in the town; 4,785 being the number for last year. In the suburbs,
making a similar exclusion, 6,839 persons were vaccinated, against 7,320 last year. The
decrease of 481 in the suburbs depends on there being this year no equivalent to represent
more than 500 vaccinations which had to be performed last year in the non-vaccinating season
to stamp out an outbreak of small-pox among some refractory followers of the King of Oude,
and those living in their vicinity, who would not before allow the vaccinators to protect them
during the usual course of their work in previous years.
It will be seen on reference to the accompanying tables that the total numbers vaccinated
show a great falling off from last year. The great deficiency in numbers depends on
the diminished vaccination of non-residents. Emigration has not been carried on to the
extent that it used to be, and hence the falling off of the total numbers and the rise in
the cost per case vaccinated. As this cause is quite beyond the control of the vaccinators,
I make no further comment on it.
3. Character and success of the vaccination.—Throughout the year under review the
vaccinations performed have uniformly been kept up to a very high standard of excellence.
The virus has been perfect, and the mode of operating laid down for them has been
strictly adhered to by the vaccinators. It was reported last year that I had noticed an
appreciable improvement in the working of the vaccinators, and although the percentage
of success, as it appeared in the returns, did not bear out my opinion, the cause of the slight
falling off was distinctly traceable to accidental causes, which need not necessarily occur
in future years, and I therefore predicted that " a higher ratio of success will next year be
attained to that which has ever yet been reached in Calcutta." The calculations founded on
the past year's work have fully justified the opinion I had formed of the improved working
of the department. In the town, out of 4,898 primary vaccinations in which the result was
ascertained, 4,842 cases were successful, the percentage being 98.85, against 98.26 last year.
In the same way in the suburbs, out of 6,839 cases there were 6,788 successes, giving a
percentage of 99 25, against 98.48 last year. I attach no importance to the improvement, and
regard it as apparent rather than real, as I had every cause to be satisfied with the vaccin-
ation of the year before.
On the very high percentage of success reached this year, as on previous ones, I place
great value, as it will require years of such careful working to overcome the distrust caused
by many persons having died by small-pox, who believed that because they had passed under
the hands of a vaccinator, an unsuccessful vaccination had protected them from small-pox.
4. Spread of vaccination in the Suburbs.—On first joining my appointment I found
a very special danger to Calcutta in the unprotected state of the suburbs A few of the
upper classes of the inhabitants in them were alone protected, and of the lower classes, though
some of those who had to come much in contact with Europeans had for twenty years