14
REPORT OF THE KING INSTITUTE, GUINDY.
difficulties in manufacture, and it is believed to the use of a machine for mixing
the pulp. By means of the records it was, however, evident that the results were
largely due to carelessness, or want of skill, on the part of certain vaccinators, as was
shown by comparing their work with that of better class vaccinators who gave,
with the same paste, steady good returns. As a rule, also, good and often excellent
results were obtained from the inoculation of calves with pastes returned from the
vaccinators, although these, by the time they had reached the Institute, had
undergone the extra exposure resulting from the double journey. Table III,
appended, gives the results of the inoculation on the calf of returned pastes made
during the year. Several specific complaints as to the quality of the paste were
received, notably from Tinnevelly. These complaints referred especially to the
paste supplied in the early months of the year, and are accounted for by the factors
mentioned. With increased attention to manufacture, and by notifying to the
District Medical and Sanitary officers glaring cases of carelessness, on the part of
vaccinators, the percentage of success rose very considerably and maintained the
higher rate through the year. Table IV, appended, gives the percentage of success
as shown by results returned to the Institute during the current year. Table V
shows the high percentage which was obtained in the district of Malabar, where the
vaccinators were well accustomed to the form of vaccine issued.
In referring to certain difficulties which have been encountered, it may be
remarked that, although there are obvious and very great advantages accruing
from the production of vaccine in a large central institution, where its purity and
character can be maintained under expert supervision, there are also many difficul-
ties peculiar to manufacture, on the scale and under the pressure, necessarily
maintained in such a case. The difficulty of procuring the necessarily large number
of suitable animals, the degree of supervision necessitated in keeping these in the
requisite condition of fitness, above all the continuous work of the Section, which
cannot for obvious reasons be relaxed for a single day or night, and the maintenance
of a multiplicity of technical details, inattention to which inevitably results in
speedy disaster, require from the staff an exceptional amount of unremitting
attention. It is not surprising, therefore, that one of the greatest difficulties has
been to obtain men at the same time efficient and capable of bearing the strain.
Particularly difficult has been the procuring of a Deputy, who can relieve the
Superintendent in some degree of details of manufacture and leave him freer for
the proper functions required of him. In this respect mention may be made of the
services of Assistant Superintendent Hanumantha Rao, who, during the prolonged
absence of any deputy, performed many of his duties and who, since then, has been
given increased responsibility as Senior Assistant Superintendent without extra
remuneration.
THE BACTERIOLOGICAL SECTION.
6. Work in this Section commenced in August 1904 when the laboratories were
first available for occupation.
7. The first step taken was the institution of a department for reporting upon
specimens sent in by medical men and others from the districts. In the earlier
months of the year the number of such specimens received was not above 3 per
mensem. Believing that the Institute could be made of much greater utility to
medical officers than they were aware of, a pamphlet, entitled " Aims and objects
of the King Institute of Preventive Medicine," setting forth what it was hoped
might be done on these lines, was circulated. The effect of this pamphlet was to
raise the number of specimens received to an average of about 60 per mensem.
In all 489 reports dealing with over 600 specimens have been sent out. The
specimens have embraced a considerable variety of material and may be classified
as follows:—84 specimens of blood for report as to the presence or absence of
malarial parasites or other protozoal organisms; 191 specimens for the diagnosis
of plague, of which 9 were from suspected buboes, 26 of sputa of suspected
pneumonic cases, 57 of blood, 14 of smears of liver or spleen in fatal cases; 102
specimens relating to plague in rats; 27 specimens of sputum or other material
for the detection of the tubercle bacillus, in connection with which 4 guinea pigs