I have embraced, with the Indians of the frontier bands, those half-breeds, who, in consequence of having adopted more or less the habits of the Indian, may be identified with him.

But little difficulty has occurred in convincing the Indians of the efficacy of vaccination; and the universal dread in which they hold the appearance of the smallpox among them, rendered it an easy task to overcome their prejudices, whatever they chanced to be. The efficacy of the vaccine disease is well appreciated, even by the most interior of the Chippewa Indians; and so universal is this information, that only one instance occurred where the Indian had never heard of the disease.

In nearly every instance the opportunity which was presented for vaccination, was embraced with cheerfulness and apparent gratitude; at the same time manifesting great anxiety that, for the safety of the whole, each one of the band should undergo the operation. When objections were made to vaccination, they were not usually made because the Indian doubted the protective power of the disease, but because he supposed (never having seen its progress), that the remedy must nearly equal the disease which it was intended to counteract.

Our situation, while travelling, did not allow me sufficient time to test the result of the vaccination in most instances; but an occasional return to bands where the operation had been performed, enabled me, in those bands, either to note the progress of the disease, or to judge from the cicatrices marking the original situation of the pustules, the cases in which the disease had proved successful.

CHIPPEWA INDIANS.MALES.FEMALES.
BANDS.U
n
d
e
r
10.		10
to
20.		20
to
40.		40
to
60.		60
to
80.		O
v
e
r
80.		U
n
d
e
r
10.		10
to
20.		20
to
40.		40
to
60.		60
to
80.		O
v
e
r
80.		M
a
l
e
s.		F
e
m
a
l
e
s.		T
o
t
a
l.
Lake SuperiorSault Ste. Marie9322198217528211031145138283
Grand Island17972......1257.........352459
Keweena Bay23111061...2012175215157108
Ontonagon River78103......1351261...283765
La Pointe373240621382528122...118106224
Fond du Lac502145102...4118351362128115243
Folle Avoine Country
Lac du Flambeau62611...23422...161529
Ottowa Lake11481......10732......242246
Yellow River11261......113621...202343
Nama Kowagun of St. Croix River4121......4...32......8917
Snake River14374112531211...304272
Sources of the
Mississippi River
Sandy Lake752147102...8619482362155184339
Lake Winnipeg44103......1112......21526
Cass, or Upper Red Cedar Lake185116...11838511413677
Leech Lake76437316419641612521213226439
Lake Superior22710313135721999312046145505477982
Folle Avoine Country46122982152123294...98109207
Sources of the Mississippi173731413562201641185594430451881
Total44618830178155452169270110279103310372070

About one-fourth of the whole number were vaccinated directly from the pustules of patients laboring under the disease; while the remaining three-fourths were vaccinated from crusts, or from virus which had been several days on hand. I did not pass by a single opportunity for securing the crusts and virus from the arms of healthy patients; and to avoid, as far as possible, the chance of giving rise to a disease of a spurious kind, I invariably made use of those crusts and that virus, for the purposes of vaccination, which had been most recently obtained. To secure, as far as possible, against the chances of escaping the vaccine disease, I invariably vaccinated in each arm.

Of the whole number of Indians vaccinated, I have either watched the progress of the disease, or examined the cicatrices of about seven hundred. An average of one in three of those vaccinated from crusts has failed, while of those vaccinated directly from the arm of a person laboring under the disease, not more than one in twenty has failed to take effect—when the disease did not make its appearance after vaccination, I have invariably, as the cases came under my examination, revaccinated until a favorable result has been obtained.

Of the different bands of Indians vaccinated, a large proportion of the following have, as an actual examination has shown, undergone thoroughly the effects of the disease; viz: Sault Ste. Marie, Keweena Bay, La Pointe, and Cass Lake, being seven hundred and fifty-one in number; while of the remaining thirteen hundred and seventy-eight, of other bands, I think it may safely be calculated that more than three-fourths have passed effectually under the influence of the vaccine disease: and as directions to revaccinate all those in whom the disease failed, together with instructions as to time and manner of vaccination, were given to the chiefs of the different bands, it is more than probable that, where the bands remained together a sufficient length of time, the operation of revaccination has been performed by themselves.