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187
[1910
The returns of the vaccination officers for 1909, the latest complete return
available, is sad reading, for it shows that only 70.7 per cent. of the infants
(less those who died unvaccinated) were vaccinated. This, with the exception
of the three years, 1898, 1899, and 1900, is the lowest percentage hitherto
reached. During the last ten years the highest percentage of vaccinations
was attained in 1904, when it was 82.3 per cent. Since then there has been
a steady fall, 1905, 80.5 per cent.; 1906, 79.9 per cent.; 1907, 76.9 per cent.;
1908, 72.4 per cent., and 1909, 70.7 per cent.
No doubt, in addition to the outcry of the anti-vaccinators, the comparative
freedom of this country from Small Pox has had something to do with the
decrease in the vaccinations. The young parents of to-day know nothing of
the terrible nature of the disease against which so many of them are refusing
to adopt precautions. They know nothing of the disfiguration and blindness
and baldness which, in its uncontrolled state, it causes; and above all they
know nothing of the enormous mortality that occurs among the unvaccinated
when they are attacked. It is to be feared that nothing but sad experience
will teach them their lesson. It seems very little use for men like the writer,
who has had a very large experience of the disease, to tell them. They think
they know better than they do, or else they rely on misleading literature, which
does all it can " to make the worse appear the better reason," and which,
undoubtedly, has had a large measure of success. The people are misled.
They will only discover their error when it is too late. When some one near
and dear to them is taken away, or hopelessly disfigured for life. Then they
will believe that there is a virtue, and a potent virtue, in vaccination. The
Medical Officer of Health has known such persons among his own personal
friends, of whom at least one has paid the forfeit of his life through his
disbelief.
It is an unfortunate circumstance that the Government of this country
do not, like other countries, insist on vaccination. They know full well
through their advisers that vaccination is the sheet anchor to withstand the
stress of an epidemic of Small Pox, and yet they refrain from insisting on
it. The writer does not refer to one particular political party—all are more or
less alike. One may be a little weaker than the other. That is all.