A letter to the inhabitants of Ceylon on the advantages of vaccination / by J. Kinnis.

  • Kinnis, John, 1794?-1853.
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the inhabitants of Ceylon on the advantages of vaccination / by J. Kinnis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    17/82 (page 9)
    June 1819 was 8,291. In the middle of that year, therefore, a great proportion of the inhabitants of the maritime districts, as well as of the Kandian provinces, were unvaccinated; and it is now my painful task to draw your attention to the himentable consequences of this want of ordinary, prudence and foresight— of this strange indiiference to the future welfare of themselves and of their families. Small-pox was introduced in the month of July 1819, by the master of a dhoney from the Malabar coast, and was first discovered in Bankshall, Colombo pettah, among some fami- lies who had concealed him. It spread rapidly, seized in a very short time a vast number of people, soon overstepped the bounds of the Colombo district, and, making its way to the Kandian provinces, there committed great ravages. On the first appearance of the disease, hopes were entertained that it might be prevented from spreading by regulating the communication with infected persons ; but it was soon found that the contagion had diiFused itself much more widely than had been suspected, and it became necessary to adopt other measures. With the view therefore of arresting its progress, and saving as many people as possible from its grasp, all the means that the country afforded of carrying vaccination into effect were placed at the|disposal of the vaccine department. Nor did the care of the i^'overnment, stop with the means of increasing the practise of vaccination—it extended itself to providing accommodation, food and medical attendance, for such unfortunate sufferers from the disease as were willing to avail themselves of them. The charitable hospital in the pettah of Colombo was thrown open, for the reception of small-pox patients, and establishments, for the reception and care of patients of the same description. Were made at every post in the maritime districts and Kandian provinces, at which a medical officer was stationed. These establishments were soon crowded with sick, and the returns from them,' observes Dr. Farrell, evince at once their utility and necessity.* In Kandy also, an attempt was made to check the progress of the disease, by separating the sick from the healthy; but, notwithstanding every exertion, the hospi- tal became crowded and inadequate for the accommodation of all the candidates for admission. It was, therefore, necessary to confine the admissions to the more indigent and destitute of the afflicted ; and indeed a large proportion of the patients, latterly received into hospital, were individuals whose relations had completely deserted them. Thus aban- doned by every one, they were often found lying in the * Letter to the Deputy Secretary to Government, 20th January 1819. C