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Hill; one in the South District, Brompton, and one in the Central
or Town District. The Vaccination Department of the Local
Government Board deem three Public Vaccinators sufficient; but
I cannot help thinking it would be well, in the public interest, to
appoint every Medical Officer a Public Vaccinator in his own district,
as no one is better acquainted with the poor, or able to bring more
influence to bear on them with a view to obtaining compliance with
the law. True, since the new Act has come into operation (Jan.
1st, 1872), a District Medical Officer may vaccinate or re-vaccinate
persons in infected houses, when he is legally in attendance upon
the sick, and obtain the small fee allowed in such cases; but I have
reason to believe that, in practice, this clause has, in this Parish at
least, and so far, proved a nullity. Yet, although I believe it
would be better to increase the number of Public Vaccinators
to the extent of employing each Medical Officer in this capacity
in his own district, I am glad to be able to report much more
favourably on the state of vaccination than was possible last year.
I then did justice to the efforts of the Vaccination Officer, Mr. Shattock,
to wipe off the arrears (1077 cases) he found at the commencement
of his term of office; and I referred to the co-operation
of the Registrars of Births, &c., who anticipated one of the
chief results of subsequent legislation by forwarding a monthly
statement of births to the Vaccination Officer—the Act of 1867
only requiring the list to be sent once in six months. During the
current year I understand that the Registrars have furnished a list
of registered births to the Vaccination Officer two or three times a
week, with the result of making that Officer's able and energetic
services conspicuously successful, every case being dealt with as
soon as the child is 3 months old, and every defaulting case being
regularly visited till it is disposed of. Mr. Shattock informs me
that he rarely finds it difficult to remove the prejudices of those
opposed to vaccination, and has had recourse to legal proceedings
in only 10 cases, all successful, for in all the law was ultimately
complied with, while at the end of the year the Vaccination Registers
were found more free from defaulters than at any previous period
since the Act of 1867 came into operation.
I am indebted to Mr. C. R. Barnes for the subjoined Statement,
shewing the actual number of certificates of successful vaccination
received by the Registrars during the year ; side by side with which
I have placed the number of births registered during the corresponding
period.