ABSTRACTS OF REPORTS OF CIVIL SURGEONS.
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" It is only by understanding the causes of our disappointment in past attempts to spread
the benefits of the operation that we can hope to secure success in the future.
Early
difficulties
and successes.
" The old residents of Dacca narrate how the people fled from the city with their children
when it was first noised abroad that they were to be inoculated with some strange matter, and
it was only by offering a fee to every vaccinated child that compliance was at last gained. The
old men in the north-west mohallas of the city still speak enthusiastically of the success
with which the Civil Surgeon of that day, Dr. Tutin, vaccinated all their children.
Their recollection of this circumstance was so engrossing five years ago, that they could not
recall the knowledge or appearance of a Government vaccinator in their mohallas for nearly
fifty years.
Vaccination
in
1836
" The spread of vaccination seems to have declined from this date, as I find Dr. Lamb,
the Civil Surgeon, writing in 1836 that he found it impossible to compel the attendance of
more than 25 to 30 children weekly, although he had two chuprassees specially employed in
bringing in children, and had the help besides of the thannadars all over the district. He
adds that the vaccinators perhaps procured as many more children to operate on, but he had
his doubts if they were quite accurate in their returns.
" The difficulty of supervising and testing the operations of the vaccinators was thus
early observed and confessed.
Outbreak of small-
pox in 1837.
Deterioration
of
lymph.
" In the beginning of 1837 a serious check to the propagation of vaccination occurred
An outbreak of a ' most virulent small-pox having broken out in the city, many of those who
had been vaccinated were seized with the disease and died.' Dr. Lamb explained this unfor-
tunate accident by the lymph having been in use before the year 1813, during which
time no fresh matter had been employed. Up to 1834 he had been satisfied regarding its
excellence, but in that year his confidence in it had ceased, as small-pox, or a disease very
much resembling it, had very often followed the vaccination of children of European or mixed
blood; while in children of purely native blood the deviation had been very trifling and rare.
A fresh start made
in 1840.
" In the beginning of 1840 a great decrease in the number vaccinated attracted the atten-
tion of Government, and Mr. Taylor, the Civil Surgeon, attributed the decrease to the failure
of the operation. New lymph was procured from Calcutta, but the confidence of the people
had been shaken, and it was with difficulty that children could be induced to present them-
selves for vaccination. From 1st May 1839 to 30th April 1840 there were 2,762 persons
vaccinated; in the ensuing year they had fallen to 1,423. The lymph from Calcutta proving
good, considerable progress was made in Dacca and in the district during 1841-42.
Opposition of Rarhi
inoculators.
" The antagonism of the Rarhi* inoculators, and the great demand for their services,
excited the resentment of the Civil Surgeon, who appealed apparently in vain for the inter-
ference of the Magistrate against these rivals.
Vaccination during
1842—50.
" In 1842 the vaccinators, four in number, vaccinated 3,502 persons, of whom 1,938
were residents of Dacca and 1,564 of the district.
" In 1843 the vaccinated numbered 3,288 ; in 1845, 2,222; in 1846, 3,464; in 1847,
4,814 ; in 1848, 4,374 ; in 1849, 5,598 ; and in 1850, 6,409. This gives an average of 4,209
a year. No record, however, was kept of the proportion of successful cases.
Small-pox in 1850.
" In 1850, which was the year of the great small-pox epidemic that spared few places in
Bengal, I find it recorded that ' vaccine lymph in European children produced a well-deve-
loped and characteristic pustule, but in native children the pustule was not nearly so satis-
factorily developed.'
" The only prejudice at this time against vaccination was founded on a declaration of the
inoculators ' that it was not a safeguard against small-pox, and that when violent symptoms
appeared, their most powerful muntras proved useless.'
Small-pox spread
by themoculators
in 1851.
" The inoculators are acquitted of the charge of introducing this epidemic into Dacca.
During this year there were eight inoculators practising in Dacca : three came from Moorshe¬
dabad, two from Mymensing, and three were residents of Dacca. In 1851 the Civil Surgeon
attributes the rise and spread of small-pox to the inoculators, and appeals for the interference
of the Magistrate to put down the iniquity of keeping up so baneful a disease. He further
recommends that a penalty should be enforced against the spreading of small-pox by inocu-
lation, and that vaccine matter be given to the inoculators to operate with.
Dr. Green's ob-
servations
in
1854.
" In 1854 again, Dr. Green blames the inoculators and denounces their doings. ' Inocu-
lation and vaccination,' he says, ' are now marching side by side—of course very much to
the disadvantage of the latter.' Although he urges the prohibition of inoculation among
the densely populated bazaars of a Bengal city, he does not see any great objection to its
being practised among the better class of natives, with the safeguard of every possible pre-
caution being taken against contagion. With this limitation he finds nothing to say in favor
of inoculation; ' yet I learn,' he writes, ' from inquiries carefully made at the jail, that out
of the families of 100 prisoners, including the children of their brothers and sisters, all the
children having been inoculated when of sufficient age, not a single death has happened from
small-pox after inoculation.'
* Brahmins, descendants of the Canouj Brahmins, invited by Adisoor, and settled in different parts of Bengal.
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