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23
District.
give the percentage on births, of the children not
accounted for in the vaccination returns:—
1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896
6.6 10.0 6.4 6.4 6.8 8.6 11.3 10.8 13.4 13.3 17.6
This shows that since the year 1891 there has been a
great falling off in the amount of vaccination done, and
that the last year is the worst of the series. It is
thought by many that the Bill to amend the Vaccination
Acts recently introduced by the Government will not at
all prevent this growing tendency to avoid vaccination,
which, of course, is seen all over London. The extension
of the age limit to twelve months will, at all events,
make the work of the vaccination officer almost an
impossibility in London, where there is so much migration
of the working classes from one district to another.
If in three months over 17 per cent, are lost sight of,
how many will be lost sight of in twelve months ?
Without minimising the advantages that are expected
to be obtained from this age extension, in the way of
overcoming the opposition of mothers to the operation,
this aspect of the question is a very important one in all
large towns. In spite of this, there does not seem much
prospect of the measure lessening the opposition to
vaccination by the professed agitators. It seems, therefore,
probable that we shall have to face the fact that we
shall have, year by year, an increasing proportion of
children unprotected by vaccination, and experience has
shown that the higher that proportion becomes, the
more danger there is of Small Pox epidemics, affecting
then, not only the unvaccinated, but also the imperfectly
vaccinated, and those whose original vaccination has
worn off. More responsibility will therefore devolve on
the sanitary officials in dealing promptly with isolated
cases of Small Pox as they arise, and, by prompt
removal to isolation hospitals, prevent the inception of
epidemics. We in London are fortunate in having, in