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5
Small Pox.—It is satisfactory to be able to report that no case of
small pox was registered in the year.
In London 9 deaths were registered from this cause, against
206, 89, and 55 respectively in the three preceding years. The
Registrar-General states that no death of a vaccinated person is known
to have occurred in 1896.
A conference on the Vaccination Acts was held at the Vestry Hall,
St. Pancras, which was attended by the Chairman of the Public Health
Committee and your Medical Officer. It was stated that, in consequence
of the unsatisfactory and often inadequate enforcement of the Vaccination
Act by the Metropolitan Boards of Guardians, the number of
unvaccinated children in the Metropolis was continually and progressively
increasing, in some districts amounting to from 12 to 17
per cent. on the total births, thus making an accumulation of 120,000
unvaccinated children in London in 10 years. It was resolved by the
delegates "that the Vaccination Acts should be administered by the
Authorities that administer the Acts and provisions for the prevention
of the spread of infectious diseases," &c., &c.
The long-looked-for Report of the Royal Commission on Vaccination
was issued in the Autumn of 1896. The Commission had been
sitting for 7 years and held 136 sittings; they examined 187 witnesses
and personally investigated 6 epidemics of small pox.
The Commissioners, in their report to the nation, say:— "It is to
be hoped that our report will stimulate belief in the efficacy of
vaccination, that it will remove some misapprehensions and re-assure
some who take an exaggerated view of the risks concerned in the
operation, as well as lead to a more ready enforcement of the law by
local authorities." From this view two of the Commissioners differ,
and prefer to rely upon sanitation as a more protective means against
small pox. But the great decrease in small pox, when viewed over
sufficiently long periods of time, does not, according to the Commissioners,
find its explanation in sanitation; on the other hand, it was
distinctly and essentially brought about by vaccination. Re-vaccination
is strongly recommended; they say "we are fully alive to the protective
value of general re-vaccination," and add that "it should be in every