34
VACCINATION REPORT.
where carried out. In the reports on the operations of the animal vaccine stations
at Lamb's Conduit Street, London, the insertion success rate by each medical
officer is always reported.
" The percentage of success in vaccination was for the whole district 94.06 ;
but as this shows nothing regarding the degree of success, the statement is
somewhat misleading, and it appears to me the percentage insertion success rate
would be of more value. The percentage success was good in all establishments
except dispensaries. Excluding Mudhol and Indi, where very little work was
performed, the percentage success was in Sángli 88.52, Sháhápur 75.09, Shirhatti
84.76, Mangalvedha 87.50, Kavatha 89.86. Only in one dispensary, Terdal, was
the percentage success good—95.29. To me the cause of such work is clear. Vacci-
nations are carried on from too few cases with no choice of selection of lymph,
and the work is spread over too large a number of operation days in relation to
the children available for vaccination. This was well exemplified in the town of
Shirhatti where I found the dispensary medical officer had been systematically
keeping up 3 or 4 vaccinations and had degenerated his lymph in consequence.
" With regard to testing of vaccination by the Deputy Sanitary Commissioner
and Inspectors, I think some more scientific method should be employed, and the
test should be uniform for the Presidency, and, in fact, the whole of India. The
system at present in force is to divide the vaccinations into 3 classes—good,
middling, bad—columns 9, 10, 11, Form V, No. XI, English. This presents the
degree of protection estimated by the Inspecting officer after careful examination
of the number and character of cicatrices found on the arms of the children. It
would be better, I consider, to divide the results into two classes—' good' and
' imperfect',—and no vaccination should be returned as ' good ' unless it had
the following characters :—4 or more cicatrices of at least ½ square inch collective
area of cicatrisation—each cicatrix typical with clear defined borders, well fove¬
ated and radiating depressed surface showing that the substance of the skin had
been well indented. Results other than these I would place in the " imperfect "
class. Middling vaccination is imperfect vaccination and the subject is unsafe—
the patient should understand this and the register should show it."
98. Dr. Colah, in charge office of Superintendent of Vaccination, Western
Gujarát Circle, remarks that " in former years when necessity existed for a
reduction of expenditure in all public departments a minute inquiry was made as to
the possible reduction in the Sanitary Department, and it was then fully demon-
strated that there was no possibility of a reduction being made in the supervising
establishment. The late Dr. Hewlett was able to satisfy Government that if
effectual supervision was desired then the sanctioned establishment was much
below par. The deputies had such extensive charges that they were hardly able
to look properly after their work. Last year financial reasons compelled Gov-
ernment to order a reduction in the medical expenditure of the Presidency and
the reduction of a Superintendent was determined upon. I have held charge of
the Western Gujarát Circle for nearly 11 months of the year and from corre-
spondence that passes through me daily and from the reports of the Assistant
Superintendents it appears to me quite clear that there is so much work to do
in the Western Gujarát Circle that a full time officer is very badly wanted for
this division."
99. With regard to the preservation and storage of bovine lymph, Dr.
Kantak's remarks are worth noticing. He says that " during the year under
report various experiments for preserving and storing bovine lymph were made
in accordance with the directions given in the pamphlet on animal vaccination
published under the orders of the Government of India by Surgeon-Major Bar-
clay. In the absence of a decent and properly equipped depôt with the appa-
ratus and appliances requisite for the efficient performance of delicate opera-
tions in antisepsis, the experiments were, as a matter of course, crude. Some
of the lymph preserved at the outset gave encouraging results, the proportion of
success being 50 per cent.; and although the same good luck has not attended
later experiments, I have hopes that with the necessary appliances for steriliz-
ing purposes, the use of preserved lymph will become more successful and ex-
tended. Most of the antiseptic processes advocated by Surgeon-Major Barclay