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Resolution 7 brought forward at the instance of the Borough Council, met with unanimous
support. It may be remembered, however, that in the report in which the subject was brought to
the attention of the Council, I proposed, as an alternative procedure, that the Local Government
Board should be " empowered to exercise such supervision over the production of lymph for the use
of private practitioners as may be necessary to secure that persons upon whom the lymph is used
shall be effectively revaccinated."
Resolution 1 in favour of transferring the control of vaccination from the Poor Law to the
Sanitary Authority, was carried by 26 to 16 votes, the debate having been closed by a delegate
of a Council known to be hostile to vaccination. It may well be asked with what object did this
body desire to possess control ? I addressed the Conference in support of an amendment proposing
to transfer the control to a Central' Authority, preferably' the " Hospital Authority." It is, in my
humble opinion, desirable, in the public interests, that there should be only one authority for
London, otherwise the law will not be uniformly carried out—nor carried out much, if at all,
better than at the present time, when it is known that certain boards of guardians are, at best,
but half-hearted in the matter. It is the fact, moreover, that at elections vaccination has been
made a test question, and candidates have been returned with the object of defeating the purpose
of the legislature. Who can say that the same thing might not occasionally happen if the
control were handed over to the sanitary authorities ? It would avail little that the Council had
been faithful to their duty in the matter, as the Kensington Guardians have been, if other Councils,
near or far off, were returned with a majority opposed to compulsory vaccination. And what a
reproach to municipal government, should a sanitary authority fail in a duty so vital to the
public interests! I think the Asylums Board would be the most suitable authority. As
hospital authority the Managers are doing splendid work for the sanitary authorities, although they
do not legally represent them ; and no one can doubt that they would carry out the law faithfully,
were this duty entrusted to them by the legislature. And what a gain would ensue from a rigid
execution of vaccination law; it being, humanly speaking, certain that in a population properly
vaccinated in infancy, and efficiently revaccinated from time to time, as necessary, small-pox
could find no place.
Notification of Chicken-Pox.
Towards the close of 1901 a letter was received from the Local Government Board
suggesting that the Council should consider the desirability of at once taking steps to add
chicken-pox, either permanently or temporarily, to the list of notifiable diseases, with the view of
affording the Medical Officer of Health the means of detecting possible sources of small-pox
infection; which, they said, "were disregarded, and therefore uncontrolled." It is true, as the
Board stated, that " cases of small-pox not infrequently escape detection owing to their being
regarded merely as cases of chicken-pox;" and I advised the Council that the course recommended
by the Board was one that might be adopted with advantage, at any rate as a temporary
measure of precaution. At the same time I stated that for some time previously all known
cases of chicken-pox in the borough, mostly reported by head teachers of elementary schools,
had been visited ; of the bulk of such cases, however, no information was forthcoming.
In January, 1902, the Council made an order for the compulsory notification of the disease
during a period of six months dating from February 5th. It did not become necessary for the
Council to renew the order, the London County Council having, on 7th May, in the exercise of
their powers under Sub-section (6) of Section 56 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891,
extended the provisions of the Section to the Metropolis, as a whole, for a period of six months,
i.e., to 7th November, and subsequently for a period of two months from the latter date: the
order ceased to be operative on 6th January, 1903. During the year 25,708 cases were notified
to the Metropolitan Medical Officers of Health, including 669 in this borough. Among the cases
notified to me, two were found to be small-pox, and were removed to hospital forthwith. The
Medical Officer of Health of another district reported that up to July, fifteen cases notified as
chicken-pox had been found to be small-pox, and removed to hospital, and that these caces had
been responsible for other twenty-five cases.
The Small-Pox Epidemic of 1871.
In January, at a time when the minds of people were considerably disturbed by the continued
prevalence of small-pox, I took occasion to show how much less severe the epidemic was than that
which, commencing in the fourth quarter of 1870, attained its maximum at the middle of 1871,
continued with decreasing intensity to the close of 1872, and even into the first half of 1873. It
was ancient history—going back to the time when the health interests of the borough were first