View report page

25
In the course of discussing certain of the other
references, suggestions are made for the compulsory
extension of the notification act to the whole country,
the more systematic supervision of tramps and
the inhabitatits of common lodging-houses, shelters,
&c., the transference of the execution of the law of
vaccination from the Poor Law to the Sanitary
Authorities, and the abolition of repeated prosecutions
for neglect or refusal to have children vaccinated.
The Report draws attention to the desirability
of securing the re-vaccination of young adults,
but makes no recommendation for the enactment of
the legislation necessary for securing the same.
Taken as a whole the suggestions made in the
Report are somewhat remarkable and disappointing,
having regard to the unequivocal expression of
opinion given by the Commission as to the value of
vaccination in the prevention of smallpox. It is
advised on the one hand that the State should insist
on the general vaccination of the community, but it
is also suggested that any individual who has been
once fined should be afterwards left to his own
devices, and that others, professing to be "honestly
opposed " to vaccination, should be enabled to make
a declaration to that effect, and so put themselves
beyond the reach of the law. There is no suggestion
of any alternative measures by which the two
classes might be brought into line at any future
date, it may be, and very fairly, argued that the