Fifth Annual Report on the Presidency Vaccine Department,
by T. EDMONDSTON CHARLES, M. D., M. R. C. P., London,
Superintendent-General of Vaccination, Calcutta, 1873.
INDEX.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Submission.
Superintendents.
Numbers vaccinated during the year.
Character and success of the vaccination.
Small-pox in Calcutta and its suburbs.
Progress of vaccination during the year.
Cost of vaccination in Calcutta.
Humanized animal virus.
Experiment with crust vaccination.
Lymph supply.
Submission.
1. Submission.—I have the honor to submit the fifth annual report on the working
of the Presidency vaccine establishment, and trust that the continued efficiency of the
department and its success during the past twelve months, both in extending vaccination
among those who had previously refused to receive it, and in keeping down the death-
rate of small-pox, will merit the approbation of the Government.
Superintendents
2. Superintendents.—Since the year 1853, there have been three superintendents of
vaccination attached to the department. These officers have always had more or less work
in. connection with the suburbs of Calcutta, but till the year 1864, this portion of their
duties may be said to have been almost nominal, as with the exception of a small portion
of the suburbs which is practically a portion of the town, the vaccination performed in the
suburbs did not form any considerable addition to their work. Since that year, however,
the extensive and thickly-populated tract adjacent to Calcutta, which constitutes the subur-
ban municipality, has been systematically brought under the influence of vaccination.
The labor entailed on the superintendents in so doing has been very great, and in under-
taking this additional sphere of duty, the amount of superintendence in Calcutta itself, has
been practically lessened. This may, therefore, be justly taken to represent the first occasion
on which it was found possible to lessen the number of superintendents originally sanctioned
for Calcutta.
It has again been found practicable during the last year, still further to dispense with
some more of the superintending agency. This time it was effected, not by enlarging the
sphere for action, but by curtailing the staff.
In October 1872, Baboo Bhoobun Mohun Mitter, the superintendent of the northern
division of the town, was appointed superintendent of the new circle for vaccination around
Dacca. The vacancy thus caused has not been filled up, so, during the whole of the past
vaccination-season, the duty of superintending the vaccination throughout the whole of the
town and suburbs of Calcutta has devolved on two superintendents. In the correspondence
soliciting permission to effect this reduction, it was arranged that the reduction should be
an experimental one, the sanctioned number of superintendents remaining at three, while the
number actually at work should be reduced to two. The power of increasing the superin-
tending staff to its original strength, at any time during the next two years, is thus reserved;
so that should the emergency arise, no danger will result to Calcutta from a premature dimi-
nution of the superintending agency below a safe standard.
Number vaccinated.
3. Number vaccinated during the year.—The gross annual out-turn of work has been
very great as the total number of vaccinations including re-vaccination cases, has amounted
to 31,483 against 20,535, during the previous year, the increase having been 10,948. The
greatest number, however, of these extra vaccinations have taken place among emigrants, and
constitutes a class of work over which the vaccinators have no control. A very considerble
increase in the numbers vaccinated among the permanent residents has, however, this year,
taken place; and this satisfactory result has been accomplished both by the vaccinators
working in the town and suburbs as well.
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