27
Of the total number (47,130) operated upon during the year, 28,656 were males, and
18,474 females. Very few Christians or Parsees have been vaccinated, the numbers being
15 of the former, and 23 of the latter. The number of Mahomedans, as compared with
Hindoos, is very large, 38,657 Mussulmans having been vaccinated, whilst of the Hindoos
only 7,252 came under the operation. The population of Sind is mainly a Mahomedan
population, in the proportion of 4 to 1, as stated in the Government Records, and this fact will
serve to explain the preponderence in the return of Mahomedans over Hindoos. As to the
age of those vaccinated, there were 14,616 cases under one year, and 32,514 above this age.
Adult vaccination is never practised, except at the request of the individuals. I only
remember to have seen three or four cases during the year. Of the number above one
year, the great mass, as far as I have had an opportunity of judging, has been under eight
years of age. As to the result, of the total number vaccinated (47,130), there were 45,155
cases reported as suucessful, giving a percentage of 95.8. The number reported as successful
includes cases which had primarily failed or were doubtful, but have been subsequently
re-vaccinated with success. With the constant use of fresh lymph, failures are of very rare
occurrence. I have been frequently surprised at the amount of success on inspecting a large
number of cases. Vaccination from glasses is generally unsatisfactory ; a few of the older
Vaccinators only can be relied upon for a successful result with lymph taken in this way.
The lymph and vesicles have, throughout the year, preserved their characteristic appearance,
and continue very good. I have found no difficulty in preserving the quality of the lymph
through the hot weather. I was employed during the last hot weather, and what is called
the rains—though there were only two or three days on which rain fell in the parts of the
province where I happened to be—in the upper part of the Shahbunder districts, in the Mahomed
Khan's Tanda districts, and in the Meerpooghass districts, from April until October, and
during the whole of the time the vesicles were quite as good as in the cold weather, and
there was no case, amongst the great number inspected, in which any inflammatory or other
unpleasant symptoms were noticed. Small-pox in its epidemic form has not made its
appearance during the last year; a few cases have occurred in the Shahbunder districts in the
early part of the year, and more recently three cases have been reported in the Sauger
Kardarate, Merepoor Kass districts. Inoculation is still occasionally practised, but the
operations are unfrequent.
With reference to the more effectual spread of vaccination, all other considerations merge in
the great one of the insufficiency of the means to the end. Sind is too large a province for
the present, or for any ordinary Establishment that Government might be pleased to sanction
to carry out vaccination thoroughly. A single Kardarate affords ample work for one man
for a year. Each district in Sind has several Kardarates ; and until two or three Vaccinators
can be entertained in each district, in addition to the present Government Establishment,
vaccination cannot be thoroughly kept up; and short of this, Small-pox can hardly be excluded
from the province, such exclusion being, I apprehend, the legitimate aid of vaccination.
It is on record that the disease was kept out of the kingdom of Denmark for years by the
efficient practice of vaccination ; but that, on some relaxation taking place in the vigorous
working of the measure, the Small-pox again made its appearance. With an instance of this
kind authenticated, it is not too much to expect that in Sind similar favourable results might
follow a parallel course of procedure. Wherever I have made inquiries, it has resulted that
the Zemindars are favourable to such a measure. With reference to vaccination, in which only
I have a direct interest, it is my entire conviction that the people themselves should be
induced to pay for a benefit as direct in its effects as any other sanitary object for
which municipal taxes exist, as sweeping the streets for instance, or cleaning and repairing
sewers and drains. Laying aside, however, the exclusion of a fatal disease, the great aim of
vaccination, as an object unattainable under existing arrangements, I would beg to represent