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diem, for four months at least; and, if the greatest difficulty was experienced in Bom-
bay in keeping up the relay of calves, I fear this would be immensely increased in
the North-Western Provinces, with its Hindoo population : and without these means
of collecting the lymph, the scheme in its present state would fall to the ground.
Further, this animal lymph, in the most experienced hands in Europe, stores and car-
ries badly, and often proves very uncertain. While on the subject of the quality
and quantity of the humanized lymph, as met with in India generally, necessitating
or not the introduction of animal lymph, I would merely mention that during the
past season I have not, from the 1st November, 1870, to the 11th March, 1871, met
with in the course of my inspections a single instance of either scarcity of vaccine
lymph, necessitating suspension of operations when the vesicle was fairly established
in November, 1870, or its showing signs of deterioration till the 2nd week in March,
1871, with the exception, as regards the latter, of what I have in para No. 9 termed
fictitious vaccination in two jails alluded to. Two careless and inefficient vacci-
nators had let the supply of vaccine lymph get very low, which led to their dismissal;
but the new men from, it might be, a few good vesicles, aided with a little lymph on
points from the vaccinator in the next tehseel, soon restored the supply to its proper
amount. Scarcity of subjects willing to submit to the operation, and not an ample
supply of good vaccine lymph, is, and has been, the great drawback to the extension of
the present voluntary scheme ; and yet, notwithstanding this limited supply of cases,
vaccine lymph is always available, in the event of an outbreak of small-pox in a village,
for 20 or 30 cases a day, and after a week or ten days for four times the above figures
if necessary.
Small-pox.
12. During the past season small-pox cannot be said to have been very prevalent
in any portion of the Agra and Meerut Divisions.
There were a few cases in the Muttra District, and
in that of Saharunpore, where it chiefly occurred at Deobund. I had an opportunity
of seeing the mortuary returns of one district, and though they exhibited what must
have been a considerable outbreak of small-pox, yet no report of it was sent to me by
the Native Superintendent of the district, though I had written to all the Superin-
tendents of Police in my divisions, requesting the favour of their issuing orders to
their subordinates in charge of mortuary circles, to report at once to the nearest vac-
cinator, by whom it could reach me through the Native Superintendent, any cases
of small-pox occurring within their circles, with the view of the vaccinator taking
advantage of it to try and induce the villagers to accept the prophylactic, and test its
benefits then and there. If I may judge by the reports of small-pox, which I have
received, I must look on the past season as one peculiarly free from small-pox even
in a slightly epidemic form. When small-pox has been reported, a vaccinator has
been sent at once, and the Native Superintendents have a standing order that, no
matter what the extent of the outbreak may be, they must proceed at once to the spot,
with lymph collected from the operations of any vaccinator through whose beat they may
pass, and use every means in their power to protect all the cases requiring it in the
village, beginning in the neighbourhood of the infested house. I may mention that
both Native Superintendents and vaccinators are, so to speak, on the look out for the
disease, as its presence adds weight to their powers of persuasion, and generally ends
in a good weekly or monthly return.
Hakeems.
13. During the past season, I have been able to make a commencement in what
I hope will prove a great aid to this department—
I allude to enlisting the sons or nominees of the
better class of hakeems and baids as candidates for instruction in vaccination, which I
am in hopes they will carry on in the families of their patients, and those of the better
classes to whose houses they have the entrée. I have to acknowledge my best thanks
to Mr. Ward, Joint Magistrate of Meerut, and Mr. Willock, Magistrate of Boolund¬
shuhur, as also to the several Dispensary and Municipal Committees in the Boolundshu¬
hur District, for the kind assistance they have rendered to me in trying to place this