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on Boards of Guardians, and the district assigned to the officer
is to coincide with a registration, or a vaccination, district. The
Registrar of Births and Deaths will transmit to him, once a month, a
list of births, and of the deaths of children under one year of age; and
the duties of Registrar of Vaccination will be transferred from the Registrar
of Births, &c., to the Vaccination Officer, a plan which will
enable the latter to ascertain whether every child in his district is
vaccinated. One of the most questionable parts of the new Bill is that
which proposes to modify the penalty-clauses of the existing Act. If a
parent has been once adjudged to pay the full penalty of twenty
shillings, or twice adjudged to pay a smaller penalty, no farther conviction
can be obtained, and the unfortunate child, or children, must
remain unvaccinated. It is to be hoped that this clause will be modified,
if not altogether rejected,* otherwise much evil will arise, although,
indeed, we may fairly anticipate that the number of those who are
sceptical of the advantages of vaccination will constantly decrease
under the influence of education.
What vaccination can achieve, is shown by the results obtained in
Ireland, where, under a very efficient system, and by the happy union
in each member of the Dispensary Medical Staff", of the triple functions
of Poor Law Medical Officer, Registrar of Births and Public Vaccinator,
vaccination is all but universal; Smallpox has been well nigh exterminated
; and nearly every local outbreak may be traced to cases
imported from this or some other country. A similar result might
be obtained here by the adoption of like means—multiplication of
Public Vaccinators, and the appointment to this office of all Poor Law
Medical Officers. It may be reasonably doubted whether the present
policy of the Privy Council Medical Department of restricting the
number of Public Vaccinators, is calculated to have the same good
effect; or whether, for example, the people of Birmingham, and of St.
* The Clause was thrown out in the Upper Home of Parliament and the Bill pasted
at the end of the Session.