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reputation of a protective is endangered when the protective itself is not what it was
when it was originally introduced ? There is but one remedy for this, namely, the
occasional renewal of the stock of virus we use from the cow or heifer, and in the
meantime the production, an a substitute for quality, of an increased number of pocks
with the human vaccine. In Paris, all the public vaccinations are performed from
the heifer. We have no arrangements for this here as yet. A paternal government
presides there for the protection of its people. That we have no national provision
of the sort here is part of the price we pay for our liberties. With us, every man
does pretty much what seems right in his own eyes; Englishmen believe that on the
whole the balance of advantage is on the side of their own system. I mention
all this now, partly because it is a subject which has occupied a good deal of my thoughts
during the past year, and partly because I have experienced an indisposition
on the part of the Trustee Board to put in force their powers under the old Act of
Parliament to enforce the vaccination of unprotected children. I have fancied that
they might have felt something of a similar difficulty in administering the law that
Parliament Beems to have felt in framing the Compulsory Vaccination Act, and I
have thought that now that new powers are conferred upon them, some such brief
statement of facts as I have given may possibly be of use in strengthening their
hands for the work they are called upon to engage in. What I desire to see is the
primary good vaccination of every infant born in the Parish or brought into it
un-vaccinated, the re-vaccination of all on the attainment of the age of puberty, and
an improvement in the quality of the virus in use. The first of these desiderata the
Guardians of the Poor are fully empowered to insist upon, the second lies in the
hands of the District Vaccinators in part, who might do much if they would bring
some amount of zeal and devote a sufficient time to the work of vaccination amongst
the poor, and in part in my own hands, by urging upon all the importance and
necessity of re-vaccination; the third desideratum I see as yet no means of compassing,
although I hope that I shall see my way to it before long.