RE-DEVISING JENNERIAN VACCINES? 29 smallpox in India could only be successfully battled with the assistance of a steady and reliable supply of European lymph.7 However, the ground realities determined otherwise and efforts began to be made by the newly established Sanitary Commissions of Bengal, Bombay and Madras, which were set up in the 1850s and the 1860s (the Madras Sanitary Commission was set up, for instance, in 1864),* to tackle the disease with vaccines produced within their respective presidencies. Between 1850 and 1900, the most widespread form of vaccine used was the one produced with human lymph, initially by the vaccinators themselves and later in small district depots created particularly for the purpose.9 The local production of this type of vaccine was soon regularised to such an extent that Dr. Stovell of the Bombay Medical Department was able to declare with remarkable confidence in 1862 that the insufficiency of British lymph reaching the sub-continent had not affected the Indian vaccine establishment to any great extent.10 Humanised lymph was in the first instance usually collected - and used - locally: it was transmitted from one person to another by the so-called 'arm to arm' method. The system, at least on paper, had one great advantage. Scientists expected fresh supplies of lymph to be always readily available from recently vaccinated subjects. The reality, however, was contrary to expectations. Caste, and quite often, religious, considerations caused the families of the potential patients to remain extremely choosy about the vaccinifier.11 Moreover, the parents of recently vaccinated children would often oppose - directly or otherwise - attempts to use them as sources of lymph. Cases of resistance, by the patients and their guardians, to the collection of lymph were often reported by Indian Medical Service [hereafter I.M.S.] officials touring, or based, in the urban centres and/or localities.12 The scale of this problem became so marked that the evidence of failures of vaccination, in the form of outbreaks of severe smallpox epidemics, were often blamed on the difficulties of collecting lymph. In fact, the acute shortages in the availability of human lymph in certain localities was directly linked to the increased efforts made to find effective means of storing and moving vaccines.13 Various methods of storage were experimented with: lymph was placed in lead tubes, on ivory points and between glasses, and scientists also began to discuss the relative merits of 'wet' and 'dry' vaccines.14 In addition, very preliminary efforts were also made to search for a preservative for vaccine lymph, which would allow its potency to be retained during