View report page

92
The Commission in a fifth interim report advised that
the practice of repeated prosecutions and the' infliction of
multiple penalties should cease.
Two of the Medical Members of the Commission do
not find themselves able to go so far in recommending
relaxation of the law as is implied in paragraphs 524, 525,
526, and 527. They think that in all cases in which a
parent or guardian refuses to allow vaccination, the person
so refusing should be summoned before a Magistrate, as
at present, and that the only change made should be to
permit the Magistrate to accept a sworn deposition of
conscientious objection, and to abstain from the infliction
of a fine.
Table 13 (Appendix) is a return respecting vaccination
in the St. Giles District during 1895, kindly supplied to
me by the Vaccination Officer of the Guardians.
2.—Measles (decennial average 26.5 per 1,000).
The deaths from it in 1896 were considerably above the
average.
Of the total 83 zymotic deaths of children, 41, or nearly
one-half, were from measles, against 7 from scarlet fever
and 5 from diphtheria. Unfortunately measles is not
regarded by parents as a serious disease, and in but a
comparatively few cases a doctor is called in, often too
late to save the life of the patient.
The Lancet comments in the following annotation,
headed "Infanticide by Measles in England and Scotland":—"The
mortality from measles has proportions
that call for more attention from Sanitary Authorities than