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With respect to the last question as to whether any alterations should be made
in the arrangements and proceedings for securing the performance of vaccination, the
Commissioners are of opinion that the state ought to continue to promote the
vaccination of the people, but they are not in favour of the present system of compulsion.
They say " after careful consideration and much study of the subject we have arrived
at the conclusion that it would conduce to increased vaccination if a scheme could be
devised which would preclude the attempt (so often a vain one) to compel those who
are honestly opposed to the practice to submit their children to vaccination, and, at
the same time, leave the law to operate, as at present, to prevent children remaining
unvaccinated owing to the neglect or indifference of the parent. When we speak of
an honest opposition to the practice, we intend to confine our remarks to cases in
which the objection is to the operation itself, and to exclude cases in which the
objection arises merely from an indisposition to incur the trouble involved," and they
do not consider such a scheme impossible.
The report is signed by all the members of the Commission except two, who are
of opinion that, smallpox, and the means of preventing it have been dealt with too
exclusively from a vaccination point of view and that more attention should have been
bestowed upon sanitary organization, prompt notification and isolation, measures of
disinfection and cleanliness, and healthy conditions of living, which they believe to be
of the first importance in preventing and controlling outbreaks of smallpox.
VACCINATION IN THE PARISH.
According to the latest return of the Vaccination Officer, for the year 1892, in
this Parish, out of 4,511 births, 3,516 were vaccinated successfully, and the children
not finally accounted for were 10.8 per cent. of the births registered.
Of the registered births during the six years 1887-92, the proportion not finally
accounted for, with regard to vaccination, in each year, respectively in the Metropolis,
the rest of England, and in Shoreditch, are set out side by side in the subjoined
table.

From this it will be seen that there has been a steady increase in the number of
children yearly unaccounted for. The percentage of children who escaped vaccination