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in this Sub-district in 1866, but since the expiration of the
year several cases are understood to have come under
treatment, more especially in private practice, and it is
believed, chiefly amongst the un-vaccinated.
Of 225 children born in the Sub-district during the past
year, the registration of 111 cases of successful public
vaccination appears to have been accomplished in that year.
How many of those born in the parish in 1866, (whose names
in connexion with this important operation do not appear
in the local register of the year,) may have had, or will have,
the vaccine lymph inserted by other hands than those of
the Public Vaccinator, it is impossible to say. The registration
of all births and of all vaccinations should be made
equally compulsory on parents and guardians, or every
attempt at legislation on the subject must fail of its
purpose.*
*There is not perhaps a matter in the whole range of a Sanitary Officer's duties
demanding more attention than the proper fulfilment of the provisions of the Vaccination
Extension Acts. When the Registrar General's Returns for the Metropolitan
area are found to record, sometimes in a single week, and week after week, between
30 and 40 deaths from Small-Pox, it becomes important that erroneous views regarding
the description of persons who can legitimately claim gratuitous vaccination and
registration at the hands of the Public Vaccinator, should be combatted, hence no
apology is needed for again alluding to the mischievous promulgation (still persisted iu
in this and other districts) of a notion that public vaccination can mean only the
vaccination of the chi'dren of the Union Poor! Of cours3, it was never contemplated
that persons in a superior condition of life should under the Vaccination
Acts, claim anything of the Public Vaccinator gratuitously, beyond the insertion
of the vaccine lymph, and the subsequent registration of the successful operation;
but the followiug letter recently addressed to one of the Medical Journals, by
a gentleman who authenticates his statement by his name and address, certainly bears
out, in the fullest possible manner, the declaration of the Poor Law Board, made
through one of their officers, that "Every person, of whatever grade and condition of
life, may take his child to the Public Vaccinator to be Vaccinated; for the provisions of
the Vaccination Acts are not confined to the poor, but extend to all classes of society."—
"About four years ago, Mr. Stevens, one of the Government Vaccination
"Inspectors, visiting this district (Kidderminster) asserted that I was in error in
"omitting to place my private patients on my account, explaining that the fee we were
"paid was intended to include everyone, and considered as a registration fee more
"than a fee for a surgical operation. I have ever since maintained my legal right to
"this fee. placing all my private patients on the register with the others. Mr. Stt vens
"remarked that unless we entered the whole of our cases, it was impossible for him
"to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion on comparing the number of births with
"the number of vaccinations. I am sure many Public Vaccinators will be glad to
"know this opinion."—Correspondent in the Lancet, July 20th, 1867.
The amended Vaccination Act, which has recently passed both Houses of Parliament,
does not in any way vitiate this view of the question. The only material alteration
that has been made is, that parents and guardians will themselves be required to
register the successful operation through a certificate from their own private practitioner,
or from the Public Vaccinator, at their option. Until now it rested with the Vaccinator
to forward the certificate to the local Registrar, and no responsibility whatever was
imposed upon the parent in respect to registration.