OFFICE OF SANITARY COMMISSIONER,
                                        MADRAS, 18th September 1878.

                                No. 53.

From

                        SURGEON-MAJOR W. R. CORNISH, F.R.C.S.,

                                        Sanitary Commissioner for Madras,

To

                                C. G. MASTER, ESQ.,

                                        Acting Chief Secretary to Government.

SIR,

I HAVE the honor to submit, herewith, for the information of His Grace the
Governor in Council, the Report on Vaccination for the official year 1877-78.

2.  I much regret the delay in the submission of this document. It reached
me originally on the 13th June, but in accordance with the instructions of Govern-
ment in G.O., No. 1,116, of 26th June 1878,I was obliged to return it to Dr. Laing
for the inclusion of the vaccination statistics of several Municipalities, which were
then missing. Dr. Laing being absent on inspection duty in the Northern Division
some further delay occurred in the correction and re-submission of the report,
which reached me at Ootacamund on the 1st instant.

Arrangements have been made for the more prompt collection of Municipal
returns, and I trust that in future there will be no loss of time in the submission
of these papers.

3.  Dr. Shortt, late Inspector of Vaccination, retired on the 15th February 1878,
and was succeeded by Surgeon J. A. Laing. The report is based on Dr. Shortt's
notes, he having been in charge of the office for ten and a half months of the year.
For the short period of the year Dr. Laing was in office, he at my request undertook
the revision and correction of the rules for the guidance of Deputy Inspectors
and Vaccinators, and the revised code has subsequently been published.

4.  The regular staff of Deputy Inspectors and Vaccinators was as follows :—

and besides the sanctioned establishments of the several Local Fund Circles and
Municipalities, extra hands were in several places temporarily employed, either on
account of the prevalence of small-pox or to work in centres of famine relief.

5. The work accomplished by the vaccine staff during the year was unusually
large, the total number of operations being 787,730, or a gross
increase of 304,538 beyond the results of the previous year.
The figures in the margin show how great was the increase of
work in 1877-78 over any previous year as regards primary
vaccination. The rise in numbers is too sudden to be
permanent, and there can be no doubt that the increased work
in 1877-78 was almost entirely due to the circumstances of the
famine bringing vast numbers of persons together in towns and centres of relief,
and thus enabling the vaccinators to have access to those requiring vaccination.
In famine relief centres moreover the great prevalence of small-pox rendered it
necessary that stringent precautions should be adopted in regard to the protection
of inmates of camps, and in this way a great amount of the extra vaccination of
the year was accomplished.