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European standards, hesitates to adopt a measure which, even in its modified
shape, must excite opposition. Sir Antony MacDonnell is not prepared to force
upon the people a general measure, the importance of which they do not yet
recognise, and to which in many districts ancient prejudice renders them
hostile, for the present the extension of the practice of vaccination must depend
on the spread of intelligence and sanitary knowledge among the people, and
the influence that can be exerted by the executive officials. It was chiefly with
the object of strengthening this influence that the Department was lately
reorganised and its supervision localized, and the Lieutenant-Governor prefers
for the present to await the results.
Attitude of the people.
15. The attitude of the people towards vaccination is described by the
Officiating Sanitary Commissioner as one of pas-
sive acceptance, but in nearly every district there
are sections of the community who openly or covertly refuse to submit to it,
objecting not so much to vaccination in itself, as to the use of human vaccinifers
who are usually of low caste, and to the payment of vaccination fees. The
difficulty of realizing the fees, he says, is undermining the whole system of
licensed vaccination in Bengal: it tends to make the vaccinators overcharge the
unsuspecting, and leads them to operate only on those who can and will pay.
On the other hand, he urges that the cost of free vaccination would be small,
amounting in a district like Burdwan to some 600 or 700 rupees only, which
the District Board could well afford, and as a matter of fact the District Board
of Puri, in pursuance of Dr. Dyson's recommendations, have since the close of
the year voted a sum of Rs. 850 for this purpose. The Lieutenant-Governor is
well aware of the many claims that are made on the resources of the District
Board, and is averse to local funds being unnecessarily drawn upon; but vacci-
nation is a matter of the greatest public importance, and is one of the legitimate
objects to which the District Fund may be applied, and he would therefore,
speaking generally, have no objection to District Boards whose funds are in a
flourishing condition making some donation for this purpose; but much will
depend upon the manner in which this contribution is expended, and before the
Lieutenant-Governor can express a confident opinion, he desires that the details
of the suggestion should be worked out and separately submitted.
The supply of lymph.
16. Lymph was obtained during the year from the Calcutta and Darjeeling
dep6ts. The former has been in existence since
1882; the latter was established in 1891. In last
year's Resolution some account was given of the operations at the new depôt, and
also of the process of preserving lymph by an admixture of lanoline. This
system was successfully continued throughout the year, and lymph can now be
preserved so as to remain active for long periods and under various changes of
temperature. One of the main objects of the establishment of these depôts has
thus been successfully achieved, but without largely increasing the number of
depôts and the expenditure on them, it is impossible to attain the further object
of supplying a sufficient quantity of lymph during the working season to enable
arm-to-arm vaccination and its attendant evils to be entirely abandoned. To
compass this object, Dr. Dyson suggests the introduction of the Punjab and
Central Provinces plan of vaccination direct from the calf. Under this system a
calf is first inoculated with lanoline lymph, and from this calf all the children of
the village, as well as calves from neighbouring villages, are vaccinated. These
calves are returned to their own villages after vaccination, and when the
lymph is ripe, a vaccinator proceeds to the village and vaccinates from the
calves all the children as well as fresh calves from other villages. The operation
causes the animals but little pain and no permanent injury, and as buffalo calves
serve as well as cow calves, it is easy to avoid wounding any susceptibilities.
Moreover, this system has this great advantage, that it obviates the sufferings
to which arm-to-arm vaccination exposes the human vaccinifer, and removes the
objections urged by some to vaccination from low caste, or possibly unhealthy,
children. The introduction of the scheme has been sanctioned tentatively in
twelve districts during the approaching cold weather. Since the close of the
year Dr. Dyson has been making experiments in goat and sheep vaccination,
the results of which will shortly be reported.
Prohibition of unlicensed vaccin-
ation.
17. The Officiating Sanitary Commissioner urges the necessity of putting
a stop to unlicensed vaccination, which he says does
great harm by engendering a false sense of security
among the persons operated on, by creating discontent among the licensed