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44
Happily in the past year, as in the previous one, no
deaths were registered as being due to Small-pox, and
what is equally satisfactory, in the Union Medical Relief
Book no cases are recorded as having been treated amongst
the poor. It is believed also that no cases were treated in
private practice, since none were made known to me by
my professional brethren. Be this, however, as it may,
the local Registrar supplies a return which shows that of
the 284 children born in the parish in 1869, there remained
at the date of the return (27th April, 1870) 61 infants
unprotected by vaccination. If this be so, it can scarcely
be said that the Vaccination Act of 1868 has been of that
benefit which was so confidently expected of it.*
* The Return here referred to is as follows:—
Number of Births from January 1st, 1869, to January 1st, 1870 1,52 weeks) = 248
Of this number there were vaccinated as under:—
By the Public Vaccinator 93
By Resident Private Practitioners 58
By other Practitioners 18
169
Children that have not been vaccinated 1
Children that have died before Vaccination 18
Total 248
(Signed) ADAM WALKER,
Registrar.
It should not be lost sight of that a certain number of these unvaccinated infants
were born in the latter months of the year 1869, so that at the date of the above
return the parents of many of them may have deemed it prudent to defer applying
to their medical attendants for vaccination on account of illness, the appearance of
eruptive disease, or the occurrence of some other circumstance forbidding the
operation at the prescribed period. It has been shown that Zymotic diseases were
very prevalent and very fatal amongst children in the past year, and it may be
stated as a fact that the Exanthematous maladies, particularly Measles, Scarlatina,
and Chicken-pock, have afflicted infants to a somewhat large extent in the present
year. Under these circumstances, and looking at the fears of most parents that
vaccination might have the effect of rendering Epidemic diseases generally more
virulent and dangerous, it can be scarcely wondered at that these postponements
should be somewhat more numerous than usual. In my own practice, and for the
reasons stated, I have lately thought it advisable in several cases to defer the insertion
of the vaccine lymph to a more fitting opportunity, and this has doubtless
been the case with other practitioners. It is hoped, then, that this list of 61 unvaccinated
infants will, in the course of a very short time, be greatly reduced, if not
made to entirely disappear.
In the Vaccination Notice Paper which the Registrar of Births is required to
hand to every parent or guardian, there is a form of Medical Certificate directed to
be filled in and signed, in all cases of postponement of the operation. Parents
generally would therefore do well to procure the signatures of their usual medical
attendant to this document in the event of its becoming necessary to defer vaccination
beyond the prescribed period of three months from the date of birth, as by so
doing they will avoid the penalties attaching to a non-compliance with the provisions
of the new Act.