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135
[1900
THE STATE OF VACCINATION IN THE BOROUGH,
There can be little doubt that the present state of Vaccination in the borough,
as judged by the returns brought up to June 1900, must cause considerable delight
to its anti-vaccinators, while on the other hand it must create a feeling of grave
dissatisfaction, if not absolute alarm among all other persons, at the manner in
which the law relating to it is enforced in Islington,
In 1880 only 9,0 per cent, of the births remained unvaccinated, or unaccounted
for, whereas now (vide return for six months ending June 1900), 30,4 per cent, so
remain, Up to the end of 1894, when the percentage remaining unvaccinated was
13,7, the state of vaccination could not be considered unsatisfactory, but since then
it has gone from bad to worse, as the figures for each successive year show,
1895 18,7 per cent, unvaccinated,
1896 23,4 „ „
1897 24,0 „ „
1898 32,0 „ „
1899 29,1 „ „
1900 (six months) 30,4 „ ,,
That this state of affairs is not due to "conscientious objectors" is conclusively
proved by the fact that in 1897 they represented only 0,14 per cent, of the births;
in 1898 (the year in which the exemption clause was passed), 1,09; in 1899, 1,04;
and the first half-year of 1900, 1,48 per cent,
At present there seems to be no special effort made, or if there is, one never
hears of it, to enforce vaccination in Islington, This is much to be regretted, for
assuredly the time will come when, despite all efforts of the sanitary authority, ably
and willingly assisted by the medical profession, to discover and isolate individual
cases, some will escape detection and will spread the disease to other places,
Sanitation we are told will protect people from smallpox, and that it is the
proper remedy, If so, how, it may be asked, did the lady—the only person who died
from smallpox during the year—contract it ? not from insanitary surroundings ;
not, surely, from personal or household uncleanliness, It has been impossible to
discover its origin in her case, but, without doubt, she was brought in some
obscure way either into contact with an unrecognised case of the disease, or with
clothing or money which had been handled by an infected person,
Since the introduction of glycerinated calf lymph, the possibility, always
much exaggerated, of contracting a certain loathsome disease, has been entirely
eliminated, so that there can now be no conscientious objection on that ground to