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Freedom from danger of inoculation seen by Mr.
Bedford.
17. In February 1852, Mr. Bedford, while Civil Surgeon of Rampore Bauleah, person-
ally inspected seventy-nine persons who had been
inoculated, and placed on record their names, and
some particulars with regard to the operation in
each case. From these cases we have to exclude three, as from the tabular statement it is
evident that in them the inoculation failed to infect the system. Seventy-six remain, in whom
small-pox appeared in the very mild form in which it is expected to appear after inoculation.
None of these children died. Besides this, no death from small-pox in February or March was
to be found in the death Registers of the two Mohullahs in which inoculation was practised,
and we are almost justified in concluding that the small-pox did not spread from these centres
of contagion, which were by no means small.
Explanation of the slight tendency which the
disease has to spread, when the inoculation has
been of a favorable nature.
18. It is an unquestioned fact, that a case of inoculated small-pox can communicate the
disease, as certainly and in as severe a form as one
of natural small-pox. But any one who has personal
knowledge of inoculation as practised in the neigh-
bourhood of Calcutta, cannot fail to be struck with
the fact, that contagion from such a source is by no means so common as he would, from mere
abstract reasoning, be led to suppose. We have not far to go for the explanation of this fact.
The most dangerous period for contagion from small-pox exists during the process of shed-
ding the crusts; and in many cases of inoculated small-pox this stage is either wholly or in
great part absent.
The whole eruption, consisting of half a dozen of papules, without going to form
vesicles and pustules, may simply fade and die away. In such a case, the contagious properties
of the disease are reduced to a minimum. Even when advance is made to the formation of
pustules and crusts, the infecting properties of such cases compared with that of an ordinary
case of unmodified small-pox, are still so infinitely small as to merit marked attention.
Out of the seventy-six cases recorded by Mr. Bedford, in more than one-half, the elements
of the eruption were limited in number to five or less. In seventeen cases the eruption reached
to one dozen, and in only seven of these did it amount to two dozen. The maximum number
reached in any case was 125 in one instance, and in only two other cases 100 pustules are
recorded as having been present.
With such a sparse modified eruption, the danger of spreading is robbed of much of its
terrors, while we have another element operating still further to limit the danger, in the
fact that the inoculations are conducted among a protected circle of friends and attendants,
and that thus, from want of pabulum to infect, the disease is confined to the individuals who
have been inoculated, and does not spread to the protected community.
The strict sanitary code of the Hindoos lessens the
danger of contagion.
19. Besides the truth, that among a protected population, the majority of cases of
inoculated small-pox, have, in ordinary seasons,
little tendency to spread from the individuals
inoculated, (everywhere in the neighbourhood of
Calcutta at least) ancient custom and religious prejudice unite in making the people
conform to rules, which, if carried out with moderate strictness, afford most material
safeguards against the spread of small-pox. Thus, no inoculation is allowed in a village unless
the majority of the unprotected persons can be inoculated; and the influential majority
generally succeed in coercing the minority to compliance, so that practically almost all
come to subject themselves to inoculation. Not only so, but it is the custom for all the unpro-
tected in the village to be operated on, on the same day; while unprotected pregnant women, or
others who cannot, from one cause or another, submit to the ordeal on the day fixed, in many
instances seek safety from contagion, by isolating themselves in the houses of relations in other
villages, until the danger has gone by. Clothes are usually not sent to the washerman till the
inoculation is completed. The accumulation of twenty-one days is in most instances twice
subjected to the influence of boiling water, and as it is sufficient to require a special washing
day for itself, the result is, that such clothes are seldom washed at the same time as the clothes
from uninfected houses. Again, Hindoos are prohibited by their religion from giving alms or
food to the poor, while inoculation is going on. They are not allowed to eat fish, and are
interdicted from shaving. A friend may not enter the house with his ordinary clothes, but
is specially required to have a clean suit on ; while any member of an inoculated household,
who has intercourse with the outside world, is thereby rendered unclean, and has to change his
clothes and bathe, before he can again enter the sick chamber.