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reported to me, and small-pox even in the slightest form of an epidemic has not been wit-
nessed" in Terree Gurhwal, but I very much regret to have to record that, during the
season under report, inoculation has been extensively practised, and that in one or
two villages on the Bhageruthee, an outbreak of small-pox (severe for the Hills) was
the consequence, which first appeared in the villages up the Bhageruthee, and extended
down this river to Terree itself, where however it was confined to a few cases. The cir¬
cmstances were the following:—While in the interior superintending the collection of
vaccine lymph in May and June, 1871, I heard that inoculation had been practised
in a village called Udni about eight miles from my camp. I at once went to the spot
and saw nearly 50 cases of small-pox, of which some were severe, but the majority
were mild types of the disease. My Native Superintendent, after reporting this inocla¬
tion to me, lost no time in protecting the adjoining village of Rhotul, and his visit was
most opportune, as the small " ghurrah" of small-pox crusts from Udni (which I saw
on my visit) was ready to commence operations with. At Rhotul, which is nearly 6,000
feet above the sea on the third range from the plains, I saw upwards of 40 cases of
vaccination, which had been reserved for the collection of vaccine lymph in the end
of June, l872, and, but for the timely visit of the Native Superintendent, every one
of these would have been inoculated, though some perhaps from the proximity of this
village to Udni, and the intercourse with it (both being inhabited by Ganges water-
sellers) might possibly have taken small-pox spontaneously before the Inoculator
arrived; as it was, not a single case of small-pox was noted in Rhotul, though it was
not a mile from Udni. I may mention that the notice of this inoculation was given
to the Native Superintendent by the hereditary Inoculator of the district, who was
first asked to inoculate in Udni, but who declined to go. To reward this man I promis-
ed him a Vaccinator's appointment, if he learnt vaccination ; this he has done, and is
now one of the Terree staff of Vaccinators, and promises to be a very good operator.
As is generally the case, the virus for these operations was obtained from a case of
small-pox, which had arrived from the plains with the disease in the stage of incuba-
tion on its first arrival. The cases inoculated, like those at Rhotul, were reserved for
the collection of vaccine lymph during the past hot season, and I was rather alarmed
lest it would spread to my " lymph nursery" higher up the river. Extensive vaccina-
tion, however, stamped out the disease, and my supply, though slightly reduced by the
number of operations which had to be performed at once, instead of so many weekly,
was not materially affected. During this slight outbreak of small-pox, I noticed that
successful inoculation in infancy did not impart that amount of immunity which it is
generally supposed to give ; as several instances of small-pox were noted among these;
inoculated cases while, as said in the previous para., not a case was seen in a successfully
vaccinated person. An effort was made to practice inoculation in the Terree itself
but through the kind offices of Colonel Ramsay C.B., the Commissioner of Kumaon,
and the orders of the late Rajah, this was prevented, though the Inoculator retained
by him a small ghurrah full of small-pox crusts for a considerable time, waiting an
opportunity to commence work ; this however he did not get, and I think it a cause
of congratulation that no fresh cases of small-pox resulted from this collection of small-
pox crusts. The Inoculator who practised in Udni was not the hereditary Inoculator
of the district, (who as before remarked refused to go) but an old man from another
district, whom the villagers of Udni sent for, when their own hereditary one disapointed
them. When I visited Udni and saw the cases, hard though it may be to believe,
the villagers asked me to give orders that the poor old man was not to be paid his four
annas for each case, and that the customary presents were to be withheld. My answer
of course was, that I should do nothing of the kind, and certainly not give my support
to their breaking any bargain they might have made with the Inoculator. I may also
mention that the people in a village near Udni (Tolara) on the banks of the Bhage-
ruthee, when it was too hot to vaccinate then, asked me if nothing could be done to
the villagers of Udni, for bringing small-pox near them, as thev were too wealthy,
being Ganges water-sellers, and hence too powerful for the Tolara villagers, to prevent
their passing through their village, and thus endangering the lives of ther infant
V 5