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Deaths from small-pox.
11. During the past year the total number of deaths from small-pox in
the Province was 31,614, against 23,543 of 1906-07
and 12,090 of 1905-06, the ratio of deaths per
1,000 of the population being .59, against .43 and .22 of 1906-07 and 1905-06.
The largest number of deaths was recorded in the districts of Gaya (3,987),
Patna (2,758), Bhagalpur (2,627), Puri (2,284), Monghyr (2,074), 24-Parganas
(1,950), Midnapore (1,456), Shahabad (1,400,) Balasore (1,347), Sonthal
Parganas (1,196), Murshidabad (1,147), Burdwan (1,099), Birbhum (926),
Calcutta (812), Purnea (772), Hooghly (751), Saran(719), Champaran (698), and
Cuttack (614), while the mortality was lowest in the districts of Darjeeling (9),
Khulna (65), Singhbhum (78), Sambalpur (93), and Palamau (93). Epidemic
outbreaks of small-pox in a district have a sort of periodicity, it being more
or less prevalent in epidemic form once in five years. The only means of
eradicating the disease is the introduction of the Compulsory Vaccination Act
throughout the Province, which under present circumstances is quite out of
the question.
Out of 31,614 persons who succumbed to this disease as noted above,
13,515 were reported as protected by vaccination and 11,943 unprotected,
while in 6,156 cases nothing could be ascertainad. These figures being
reported by chaukidars, cannot be relied on as accurate.
Animal Vaccination Depôts.
12. In the Animal Vaccination Depôts at Calcutta and Darjeeling, the
average number of calves vaccinated during the
period under report was 1,438 and 223 respectively,
against 795 and 223 of the previous triennial period. The average quantity of
lanoline paste in grains manufactured was 278,340 and 67,801 respectively
against 127,243 and 50,245 during 1903-1905. The increased outturn of the
Calcutta Depôt is due to the abolition of arm-to-arm vaccination and the
general introduction of lanoline lymph vaccination in the districts of the
Presidency, Burdwan, and Orissa Divisions under Government. order
No. 2977S., dated the 30th December 1905. But the lymph supply of the
Darjeeling Depôt is almost stationary, as it is not capable of further extension.
For this reason I submitted a proposal to Government last year to start
another vaccination Depôt at Ranchi with a view to extend the lymph supply
of the Bihar and Chota Nagpur districts with the ultimate object of supplanting
arm-to arm vaccination altogether in those regions as quickly as possible.
The question has been kept in abeyance, as it is intended to introduce a new
and more expeditious method of lymph preparation, which, if successful, might
obviate the necessity of constructing a new depôt. This matter is at present
under my consideration.
During the year 1906 07 there was a failure in the lymph supply of the
Darjeeling Depôt owing to deterioration of the quality of the lymph. This
caused much inconvenience, especially as there was at the time an epidemic
outbreak of small-pox in Darjeeling. Prompt measures were, however,
adopted to re-establish the lymph, but it was not until a new strain of lymph
was introduced which had lately arrived from England and which had been
rendered more potent by passage through rabbits that the lymph was brought
to a high standard of efficiency. Captain D. Munro, I.M.S., Officiating Deputy
Sanitary Commissioner, Bengal and Orissa Circle, by introducing the routine
method of passing the lymph frequently through rabbits, both in the Calcutta
and the Darjeeling Depôts, has ensured the quality of the lymph remaining
good. He has also introduced the custom of testing the prepared paste on
rabbits so as to ensure the lymph being potent when issued from the depôt.
During the past year a series of experiments was conducted by Captain
Munro, I.M.S., to test the efficacy of the two different kinds of lymph, viz.,
lanoline lymph and glycerinated lymph, and he was impressed with the
superiority of the latter variety. I quote below two extracts from Captain
Munro's reports on the experiments, as they may be of interest:—
" With the exception of tubes 7, 8, and 9 of Calcutta lymph the results were very good—
indeed, the Calcutta lymph which had been exposed to heat for five weeks, reacted much
better than the Darjeeling lymph which had been stored in comparative coolness. I can
offer no explanation as to why the third set of tubes from Calcutta was not so successful as
the others. The glycerine was obviously exercising its inhibitive effect on extraneous organ-
isms originally present. Witness 15 colonies on the plate from tubes 7, 8, and 9 as against
41 from tubes 4, 5, and 6. That the virus was not weakened, is shown by the results