Page:The Indian Journal of Medical Research, 1920.djvu/15

Rh Captain W. F. Harvey,, in the Punjab and Hutchinson in Bombay were in favour of the glycerine method of preserving lymph. From experiments, very carefully carried out, Harvey2 and Hutchinson3 showed that glycerinated vaccine lymph was to be preferred to lanoline. The arguments for and against lanoline may be stated:—

Lanoline has no effect in reducing the extraneous micro-organisms, which are always present, in large numbers, in lymph collected from the calf. Owing to the presence of these large numbers of extraneous germs, badly inflamed arms are very often met with after vaccination with lanolinated lymph, Lanoline merely forms a convenient vehicle in which the crude pulp may be ground-up and filled into tubes for distribution, so that, whatever extraneous organisms are present, when the pulp is collected from the calf, will remain alive and active when the lymph is used for vaccination. Further, lanoline tends to become acid in India, and acidity in vaccine lymph is fatal to the living virus. Emulsifying the crude pulp with 50 per cent glycerine solution, on the other hand, has a very powerful purifying effect and almost all extraneous germs, except those which form spores, are rapidly killed at tropical temperatures. It was further held, by the advocates of lanolinated lymph, that the vaccine principle was preserved intact, in the case of lanolinated lymph, for a much longer period than was possible, in the case of glycerinated lymph, but experience has not borne out their contention, and lanolinated lymph does not seem to give nearly such good results in India as were expected of it by its advocates. Further, it has been proved by Noguchi4, that tropical temperatures alone are sufficient to cause fairly rapid weakening of the vaccine principle, irrespective of the vehicle with which the lymph is mixed. In fact, he has shown, that vaccine lymph which has been dried, loses its potency in proportion to the increase of the temperature of the air. In the case of glycerinated lymph, if a strong strain of lymph is maintained and due care is taken in preparation and distribution, it has been proved that the lymph retains its potency sufficiently long to obtain very good results in the hands of vaccinators, working over very extensive areas of distribution, such as the Provinces of Bombay and the Punjab.

Proceeding in the light of these ascertained facts, Hutchinson in 1904 began gradually to replace the lanoline method by glycerine, and glycerinated lymph was supplied to all the vaccinators in 1907-08.