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the vaccinator at the time, but receiving a reply to the effect that they intended con-
tinuing the grant, I kept the vaccinator at his place. With reference to the reduction
in the Tehree staff of vaccinators, I regret to say this is a most serious blow to the
efficiency of this department, as it is on this staff of vaccinators that I am dependent
for my supply of hill lymph, and, owing to the unhealthiness of the interior of the
hills in the rains, it is of the greatest importance to have two vaccinators ready to
replace the two at work there should either of them fall sick, and now I have only
one available. Since writing this the oldest of these three has been obliged to resign
from weak health, brought on from repeated attacks of fever while in the interior
during the rains. I am thus left with two vaccinators of only a season's instruction
each, to collect vaccine lymph for next season's operations, as some time must elapse
before the last-appointed vaccinator can be trusted with the duty of filling tubes.
The vaccinators on the Tehree vaccine establishment are more highly trained than
any of the others, as they have to fill tubes in such a manner that the vaccine lymph
is not rendered inert in the process of filling or closing them. I most earnestly trust,
therefore, that if the Rajah of Tehree is unable to meet the expense of a fourth vacci-
nator, which is only Rs. 60 in addition to the Rs. 600 allowed, that the Government
will be pleased to sanction it. The total allowance for the Tehree staff of four vacci-
nators and one Native Superintendent was on its first establishment Rs. 660, and the
withdrawal of Rs. 60 has compelled me to dispense with one vaccinator.
Revaccination.
9. A reference to the returns will exhibit the circumstance of the revaccination
column in Statement No. I. being left blank, and I there-
fore feel that some explanation is required on the subject.
The term revaccination is described in the foot-note of Statement No. I. by the
Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India as follows :—" That is to say,
" vaccination of persons who have been either previously vaccinated with success,
" or have been inoculated, or have had small-pox." Now with all deference, I would
suggest that this definition is incorrect in two out of the three instances in which it is
employed. I allude of course to the two latter, for how can a case be revaccinated of
which there is no record or mark of a primary vaccine operation. Further, the use of
the term is also apt to lead to grave errors in the conclusions which may be arrived at
with reference to the results notice in the revaccination column. For instance, suc-
cessful revaccination, owing not unfrequently to what really might have been defective
primary vaccination, though supposed to be successful, is common enough; but a very
different result is met with when the operation is performed on an inoculated case, or
one that has had small-pox; and thus the revaccination column should be kept for re-
vaccinated cases according to the recognised definition of the term in Europe, so that
it may be possible to compare the results, such as they may be, with similar ones in the
countries of Europe. Independent of the above, it is surely not argued in favour of
vaccinating inoculated cases, or those that have had small-pox (as the operation cannot
be termed revaccination), that vaccination if really successful, which by the way is far
from a common occurrence, as stated before, can impart an immunity from small-pox
greater than that already enjoyed by these cases, from either a spontaneous or
inoculated attack of the disease. The necessity, therefore, of operating in these cases is,
to say the least of it, very doubtful. Further, the villagers generally where vaccination
has been practised to any extent are perfectly well aware of the fact that it is had re-
course to to prevent an attack of small-pox, and it would be expecting too much to sup-
pose that they are ignorant of the fact that one attack of the disease gives immunity,
as a general rule with but rare exceptions, from another. The suspicion, therefore,
alluded to in para. No. 14, regarding the supposed object of the Government in the present
cheme of gratuitous vaccination, would, in their ignorant and suspicious minds, have
some foundation, if they saw all the people in a village vaccinated without reference to
small-pox or inoculation; and if I was asked by one of the villagers why I vaccinated
a case profusely marked with small-pox, I know of no satisfactory answer which I
could give, and this would only make matters worse. Again, if the. column has been