Vaccination in Trikata parish 1827 and 1829

Here 2 documents are published that the Pastor of Trikata parish Johannes Pohrt prepared in 1827 and 1829 for the parish court. The court had to organize the vaccination of the new born babies against smallpox. In fact the documents comprised only the birth statistics in various manors of the parish for the second half of 1827 and for the first half of 1829, and could be used only for calculating the necessary finances for the vaccination. The regulations of 1820 (to be published later) stated that the persons educated for vaccination were paid 15 Kopecks for a vaccinated child. The money was paid from the pagasts community budget and later was reimbursed by the parents. The children were to be transported for vaccination at the given day to the place of vaccination. The parents, who did not, were fined by 30 Kopecks. 15 Kopecks was the money that not all parents possessed, I think.

The document also provides the data how many children died in these time periods before inoculation. It was not asserted that namely the newborn babies died, and no causes of the deaths were mentioned, but in any case it is clear that in the second halfyear of 1827 in Trikata parish the children mortality was about 13.6% what was an extremely high level, I think, especially taking into account the fact that some inoculated children also could die. The mortality was even much higher in the first halfyear of 1829 when the death rate was 37.7%. May be the cholera epidemic of 1830 had already began. One may note, however, that the mortality of the peasant children belonging to the Pastor manor was zero.

Now the table of these documents follows. The first column are the manors, the second - the number of children born in the appropriate time period, the third - the number of children who died without being inoculated.

Trikaten-Pastorat den 21. December 1827.

Pastor Joh. Pohrt.

Trikaten-Pastorat den 18. Juny 1829.

Pastor Joh. Pohrt.