ANNUAL REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE KING INSTITUTE OF
PREVENTIVE MEDICINE FOR THE YEAR ENDING
31ST MARCH 1905.
THE VACCINE SECTION.
1. The total amount of vaccine despatched during the year has been 1,478,448
cases. Of this amount 1,308,035 cases were supplied to the various districts of
the Madras Presidency. For various reasons, it was not found possible to take up
from the beginning all the districts, which it was intended the Institute should
eventually supply. A great deal had to be done in training the staff in work, with
which most of them were imperfectly, if at all, acquainted. After a start was
made, difficulties arose on account of the necessity, on technical grounds, of re-
laying the floors of certain of the sheds with stone instead of cement. It was
necessary, also, to arrange for the abolition of local vaccine depots, whilst at the
same time the certainty of the new supply was assured. Anantapur, South Canara,
Nilgiris, Kurnool, Nellore, Bellary, Ganjám, Ganjám Hill Tracts, Madura, Trichi-
nopoly, Salem, Coimbatore, Kistna, Tinnevelly, and Vizagapatam, were however
all taken up by 16th April. North and South Arcot by the 21st June. Gódávari,
Chingleput, Cuddapah and Malabar by the 5th August. The only district not
supplied in the current year was Tanjore. In this case every endeavour was made
to start the supply of vaccine within the current year, but arrangements as regards
the abolition of the local depot prevented this being carried out before April 1905.
2. In addition to vaccine supplied to the districts, in accordance with the
regular supply stipulated upon, 104,918 cases were sent in answer to extra indents
from vaccinators, 91,990 to different municipalities, 71,152 to Government officers
including Agency vaccinators, Jails and Police, 1,063 to the Military Department,
and 6,208 cases to various private persons.
3. When in the later months all these districts were supplied, the output of
vaccine was at the rate of over a million and-a-half cases per annum, or practically
double that of the National Vaccine Institution, hitherto the largest Institution of
the kind in the world, which in 1902-1903 manufactured 800,100 cases.
4. The total net cost of production, including establishment charges and
repairs of buildings, was Rs. 31,945-5-2, and the cost per case 4.1661 pies. Table I,
appended, shows details of expenditure for the year. The vehicle used for the
preservation of the vaccine pulp was left to the choice of the districts, who have
unanimously chosen Lanoline Vaccine Paste on account of its excellent keeping
qualities in the tropics, as compared with Glycerinated Lymph. Table II,
appended, shows the result of a number of successful inoculations on the calf of
pastes returned from the vaccinators, which had been subjected to the usual exi-
gencies of rural postal transit, and which had been retained at room temperature in
the Institute for variable and considerable periods.
The amount of paste allowed per case was 25 millegrammes, but owing to the
representations of some of the vaccinators, supported by certain of the District
Medical and Sanitary officers, the amount was increased to 27 millegrammes. This
latter quantity has been found, by experiment, and by the general experience of
the vaccinators, to be sufficient.
5. In order that the Institute should be kept informed as to the result of
vaccination in the case of the different issues of paste, vaccinators were requested
through the Presidents of the District Boards to submit fortnightly statements,
showing the result derived from each supply of paste. These returns, though
incomplete, have served to gauge the general success of the paste. In the early
months of the year very bad results were obtained. This was partly due to certain
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