THE GOVT. OF BENGAL PROPER.          13

safely transmissible, at the proper season. Throughout India, vaccina-
tion by crusts is largely practised also, and great care is now taken
as to the preservation, and proper time of removal from the arm, of
vaccine crusts. It has been observed at Madras that English tube
lymph lasts three months there, and that although the vaccinia produced
by it, in the first instance, may pass through its stages prematurely, yet
after the second or third transmission through individuals, a good and
sound vesicle results.

Instrument
used in vaccina-
tion.

35. Vaccination by scratching the arm with needles, after laying
on the lymph, is very much superseding the perforation by the lancct
and insertion of the virus.

36. Considering the vast numbers of the population of this
country of India generally, the efforts of the Government to make vacci-
nation universal by paid vaccinators is a chimera almost; as Dr. Pearson
has observed, all that can be done under ordinary means, and such as
the finances will admit of, is merely like a shower to the ocean.

Converting
and employing
the native inocu-
lators of small-
pox.

37. I am glad to observe that Dr. Pearson writes in his vaccine report
of 1866-67, that some plan must be devised whereby vaccination can be
brought to' the door of every family, and this can only be accomplished
by enlisting the services of all native practitioners, Brahmin tikadars,
bhaids, hakims, &c., in the cause. To this I would add and suggest the
attempt to engage the present inoculators of small-pox of all kinds in
the cause of vaccination. Dr. Pearson, in the same report regarding
the Benares circle, writes that attempts will be again made next year to
induce Brahmin inoculators to enrol themselves as vaccinators, for it is
by enlisting the sympathies of the inoculating class, and by providing
them with remunerative employment, that the bigoted attachment
of the Hindoos to inoculation can be best overcome. I have
already pointed out Dr. Shoolbred's successful efforts in this direc-
tion, as he has described them in his report on vaccination, so
long back as 1804. The same idea and recommendation is evident
in all the different vaccine reports from time to time ever since. At
Madras, Bombay, the Punjab and Oudh it is so. Indeed, many of our
present vaccinators in various parts of India originally practised inocula-
tion. The hakims of the King's Hospital at Lucknow have success-
fully exerted themselves, it is alleged, to overcome the prejudices
of the people against vaccination. I have already pressed this sub-
ject upon the notice of the Bengal Government, in my letter No. 237,
dated 7th July 1868.