( 23 )
for a good vaccine crust; but the unavoidable age of some, and the exposure to high
temperature of others (probably in transit), made an unusually large number of them
inert; and when the temperature at which a vaccine crust is rendered inactive is
taken into consideration, their inefficiency from the latter cause in the first week in
November was not to be wondered at. The quality of this lymph, however, particu-
larly that in tubes, has been good, and none of the officers whom I have supplied with
it have reported their failure in establishing a good vesicle from the first supply sent.
This I think may be considered a good test of its quality in other hands than those of
my own establishment.
The establishment of the vaccine
vesicle in the plains in November, 1870.
3. During the month of November, 1870, the heat for the first five days was
unusually great, and the lymph employed during
this time was therefore in a great majority of cases
unsuccessful. On the 7th, however, the weather became cooler, and the operations
more successful. Under these circumstances the vesicle could not be said to have been
fairly established till the 15 th November, and lymph available for any considerable
number of operations till the 20th.
Closing of the vaccine season.
4. As usual, orders were sent to close work for this season on the 15th March,
but the sudden rise in the temperature at the end of
the first week in March virtually put a stop to vac-
cination by the 10th, and some cases which I inspected on the 13th, though in young
children who are generally kept in the house, and on whom the operation was lightly
performed, were clearly injuriously affected by the heat.
Actual period over which this sea-
son's operations extend.
5. From the circumstances alluded to in the preceding paras., the vaccinating
season in 1870-71 cannot be calculated on five
months, as a reference to Statement No. II. will
show. By this return, the operations for what is entered as the whole of November
were 9,159, while that for what really was half of March was 11,666. Vaccination
cannot be said to have fairly commenced till the vaccinator has a sufficient number of
cases to admit of fresh lymph being available daily for at the very least ten cases, and as
a rule, this was generally hardly possible much before the 20th of November. The
season, therefore, to be taken into consideration when calculating the monthly number
of each vaccinator, should be even less than four months at the most, and certainly
not five, as is directed to be employed in this report.
Tour of the Superintendent.
6. Acting up to the remarks I made in my annual report of last season under
this head, viz., that it was better to inspect one divi-
sion thoroughly each alternate year than to march
hurriedly through two, inspecting only the work on the line of march, I have this
year inspected the Agra Division with the same care which I devoted to that of
Meerut in the previous season, with the addition of inspecting any work in the Meerut
Division which lay on my line of march to Agra. I have thus seen and become
personally acquainted with every Native Superintendent and more than two-thirds
of the vaccinators in my divisions during the past season. My camp left Dehra
on the 31st October, 1870 (as soon as possible after the despatch of the hill lymph to
the various headquarters of the Native Superintendents for distribution among their
vaccinators), and returned to Dehra on the 1st April, 1871. As was to be expected,
much has been seen and heard during the above extended tour which appears to me
worthy of record, and to which I shall allude in detail either in separate paras. or
under the head of general remarks.
Annual returns.
7. The returns this season have been drawn up according to those last furnished
from the office of the Sanitary Commissioner with
the Government of India, and though they have
required greatly increased clerical work in their compilation, yet Statement No. I. is
so full, and the means of comparison so ready at hand, that the labour spent on it is