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undoubtedly be entitled to a small fee for each successful case, which I may mention is very
frequently tendered under the present system, which the vaccinator is allowed to retain
on reporting the circumstance to me. I always mark these cases with approval, as there
can be no better proof in this country of a benefit having been conferred than when a
pecuniary reward follows it. I would allow one municipal vaccinator to every
100,000 of the population, and, as no time would be lost in going from village to village,
this man could with a little extra exertion for the first year or two protect the population
requiring vaccination above a year old, and subsequently the annual birth-rate could be
easily kept under protection. The only difficulty which I can think of would be
with reference to the seven non-vaccinating months, but the risk to the children born
between the 1st November and 1st April would be immensely diminished if these chil-
dren were the only cases liable to small-pox.
Animal vaccination.
11. With reference to letter No. 4655A. of 1870, dated the 9th November, 1870,
from the Government of the North-Western Pro-
vinces, a copy of which was supplied to me, I regret to
say that, owing to my having been on tour from the end of October, 1870, to the pre-
sent time, I have had no opportunity of making any experiment on the subject of animal
vaccination: the observations which I am about to make are merely the result of studying
the subject by means of the published articles and reports on it. The report of the Medi-
cal Officer to the Privy Council, and of the medical officers deputed to make inquiries
into the subject, are far from favourable to the scheme. The Medical Officer to the Privy
Council, in his twelth report to the Council, at page 38, writes as follows :—" Facts stated
" in Dr. Seaton's report show most clearly that the system as at present understood has
" certain great disadvantages, and these in my opinion are of such kind as at present
" entirely to forbid an adoption of the system in place of our own, unless on independent
" grounds our own already deserved to be condemned." Mr. Simon, the Medical
Officer to the Privy Council, then goes on to refute the charges brought against the
supply of vaccine lymph in circulation in England, of imparting syphilis among the
cases operated on ; but as this is foreign to the subject of the necessity of animal vacci-
nation, in the Bombay Presidency at least, where the entire Vaccine Department have
recorded their experience of never having met with a case of syphilis traceable to vaccina-
tion, it will be unnecessary for me to enter into it in detail here. With reference to
animal vaccination as met with in Bombay, however, the case is different, and I would
take the liberty of making a few remarks regarding it, as contained in the reports of
Dr. Blane and Assistant Surgeon Anunta Chandroba, and I may mention, that they
are based on the inquiries conducted by Dr. Seaton on the Continent:—
1st,—What necessity exists in the Bombay Presidency for having recourse to
animal vaccination?
2nd,—Judging from Assistant Surgeon Anunta Chandroba's report, supposing
the necessity to be established, would it be possible to carry out the scheme in this
country in such a manner as to improve on the present practice of vaccination in
India, either as regards numbers or rate of success ?
As regards the first question, Assistant Surgeon Anunta Chandroba virtually
answers it by stating, in the conclusion of his report, that animal vaccination " has
" proved a perfect boon to Bombay in one particular," viz., by animal vaccination now
providing " the means of producing a supply of lymph the purest and most effective
" to an unlimited extent." The "purity " of this lymph may be undeniable, but as to
its being "most effective" the returns of the Bombay Presidency, where the rate of
success is taken in circles, prove it to be more than 11 per cent. less effective than the
worst vaccine lymph in circulation, and 15 per cent. more inefficient than the best.
Dr. Blane's record of the condition of the vaccine lymph in his circle, as given at
page 25 of the Bombay Vaccine Report for 1869-70, undoubtedly seems to leave room
for vast improvement under this head, but this vaccine lymph, nevertheless, in upwards
of 45,000 operations, realized a percentage of success of upwards of 96.1, which is
more than 12 per cent, higher than the animal lymph could attain, even under the
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