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Green, Hackney, Mile End Old Town, and Shoreditch, the number
of "defaulters" amounting to 73%, 63.4%, 63.1%, and 47.5% respectively
of the births registered in those unions.
The absurd machinery of conscientious objection is so great a
farce that there is reason to hope that it will not be suffered to last
even five years. The asking for reasons is a mere waste of time ;
the "reasons" are always forthcoming, such as they are. The purpose
of the conscience clause was to distinguish between genuine and
deep-rooted objection to vaccination and parental carelessness and
neglect of duty, but when no oath is administered, where no birth
certificate is required, where the attendance of the father is unnecessary
and where the objector has been put to no trouble or
inconvenience of any sort, no sufficient test is made to distinguish
between conscientious objection and mere indifference or laziness.
When, however, the danger of Small-pox immediately threatens,
the great mass of every community will cry aloud for protection and
Local Authorities will have to provide exceptional means of meeting
the emergency.
DIPHTHERIA.
The 52 cases of Diphtheria occurred in 39 different houses ; and.
in only 3 instances were sanitary defects of a grave nature found to
exist in the home of the patient.
School attendance is either alleged by the parents or surmised
by myself, on good grounds, to be the cause of 3 attacks during the
year, and to be responsible for 5.7 per cent. of the cases as against
7.5 per cent. in the preceding year.
Three cases of the infection were imported into the Parish. In
three cases it was very clear that a preceding tonsilitis of several
weeks' duration predisposed to an attack of Diphtheria. In five
cases the attack was preceded by " sore-throat " in other members
of the family. Two unhealthy cats were destroyed, but a bacterial
examination of their throats failed to detect the germ of Diphtheria.
In as many as 31 cases I was unable to trace the origin of the
disease in any satisfactory manner; that is to say, after carefully
ascertaining all the facts, the origin of the infection could only be
conjectured, and it was impossible to do more.
It is discomforting that the increase in the death-rate from