"Outside Calcutta, since the commencement of the inoculations in
India in April 1893, opportunities for an exact comparison of
the respective powers of resistance against cholera of
inoculated and non-inoculated persons presented themselves; (1)
in Lucknow, in the East Lancashire Regiment; (2) in Gaya, in the
jail; (3) in Cachar, among the tea-garden coolies; (4) in
Margherita, among coolies of the Assam-Burmah Railway Survey;
(5) in Durbhanga, in the jail; (6) in the coolie camp at
Bilaspur; (7) in Serampur, among the general population."
[28] For a summary of this report, see the _Lancet_, 8th August
1896. For more recent results, see Surgeon-Captain Vaughan and
Assistant-Surgeon Mukerji, in the thirtieth annual report of the
Sanitary Commissioner for Bengal (1897). Also the note published
by Surgeon-Captain Nott, in the _Indian Medical Gazette_, May
1898.
Here, then, in this 1896 report, are all the results that give an
answer to the question, What will happen when cholera breaks out
among a number of people living under the same conditions, of whom
some have received preventive treatment, and the rest have been left
to Nature?
I. _Calcutta_ (1894-1896)
"The number of people inoculated during the period under review
was 7690; of these, 5853 are Hindus, 1476 Mahomedans, and 361
other classes.... Considering that the system is a new one, that
the inoculations are purely voluntary, and everything connected
with them has to be explained before the confidence of the
people can be obtained, and considering how long new ideas are
in taking root among the general population--and in this case it
is not merely the acceptance of an idea, but such faith in it as
to consent to submit to an operation--the number is certainly
satisfactory for a beginning. The present problem can be
compared with the introduction of vaccination against smallpox
into Calcutta. It took 25 years before the number of
vaccinations reached an average of 2000; whereas the
inoculations against cholera have in two years nearly doubled
that average. This is a proof that, in spite of the difficulties
which every new movement naturally has to meet with, there are
large numbers of people anxious to avail themselves of the
protective effect of the inoculations.
"Although all sorts and conditions of individuals, weak and
strong, sickly and healthy, young and old, well nourished and
badly nourished, and often persons suffering from chronic
diseases, have been inoculated, in every instance, without
exception, the inoculations have proved perfectly harmless.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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