8
REPORT OF THE KING INSTITUTE, GUINDY
probably due to the sharp fall on this item on account of the difficulty of getting-
stores during the earlier part of the war. The resulting fall in the price of vaccine-
due to decreased net charges amounts to about 10.75 per cent, the price per case-
working out to 3.827617 pies.
TABLE V.
Returns, recorded in the King Institute of Preventive Medicine, Guindy, from the whole of the Madras
Presidency according to the month of the year.
Serial
number.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Months.
1915.
April ... ... ... ...
May ... ... ... ...
June ... ... ... ...
July ... ... ... ...
August
...
...
...
...
September ... ... ... ...
October ... ... ... ...
November ... ... ... ...
December ... ... ... ...
1916.
January
... ... ... ...
February ... ... ... ...
March ... ... ... ...
Total
Number
successful.
89,595
91,317
94,400
91,761
94,133
92,963
112,016
110,461
122,125
111,845
110,929
102,473
1,224,018
Number
unsuccessful.
16,728
19,203
21,433
18,426
23,740
20,749
9,492
8,610
8,795
8,643
7,398
8,332
171,549
Percentage
of success.
84.26
82.62
81.19
83.27
79.86
81.75
92.18
92.76
93.28
92.82
93.74
92.48
87.70 %
successful.
7. Table V shows the success rate reported monthwar. There has been a
regrettable fall of over 3 per cent for the entire year. In the last annual report
it was pointed out that the seasonal curve was a very abnormal one showing a
consistently higher success rate during the hot weather than during the cold
weather. The curve has again become normal but at the expense of the success
rate. The year 1915 started badly with an abnormally low success rate which, on
the advent of the hot weather, went lower still and resulted in the lowest recorded
rates since the year 1904-1905. In one month indeed, August, the success rate for
the whole Presidency fell below 80. A portion of the fall is of course due to the
experiment in storing vaccine pulp in the raw condition and grinding and mixing
it with lanoline as required for issue. The earlier stages of this experiment were
described in last year's report. As this report was being compiled it was already
clear from the results of operations made up to the 31st March 1915, that the new
method was a failure. It was abandoned, but by that time there was a large
accumulation of pulp which had been stored in the raw condition. It was ground
up and mixed as rapidly as possible, and the paste so made was issued along with
paste made in the usual fashion, equal quantities of each kind being sent out
daily.
8. From April 1st, 1915, till 31st January 1916, on which date the last report
dealing with the comparison was received, 356,418 operations had been carried out
with paste, the pulp used in making which had been stored in the raw condition for
some time. The last issues of such paste were made much earlier in the beginning
of September. The success rate in these operations was only 80.54 per cent.
The 367,156 cases, done with ordinary paste and issued in parallel with the above,
gave a success rate of 84.77 per cent, 4.23 per cent higher. Even allowing for
this, however, the success rate during the hot months of 1915 was abnormally
low. The success rate obtained with the ordinary paste, in no way different from
the paste issued in previous years, was lower over the whole period than the average
for any month in the previous five years. What the main reason for the excep-
tionally poor results got in the hot weather of 1915 was remains obscure. The
paste was made in the months of February—April 1915 inclusive, when owing to
late rains the weather was cooler than usual and the calves could be grazed up to a
later date than usual. This should have resulted in paste of better quality. Fortu-
nately for the overall result a very marked improvement took place after September
and this was well maintained right up to the end of March. The cause of this sudden
improvement is just as obscure as that of the previous bad results.