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42
preferable to the present system of having them at the
Union, inasmuch as it would tend to remove the taint
of pauperism to which so many persons object.
Throughout the whole of the epidemic the protective
power of vaccination has been strikingly demonstrated,
nearly the whole of the persons attacked having
been of adult age, whilst in those under 12 years, who had
been vaccinated in infancy, the disease was of the most
mild type. There are several instances in which the unvaccinated
child in a family has been the only person
affected.
Scarlet-fever and Measles give 75 deaths against
38 in the previous year. The former disease was not so
severe in character as usual, whilst Measles, on the contrary,
was unusually fatal; generally with some complication,
such as lung disease. These diseases were
distributed over the whole district, which may perhaps
be accounted for by their highly infectious character,
and the difficulty of properly isolating the infected person
in a poor district, such as the greater part of this is.
Another cause is that we abound in Board Schools,
children return to them before being thoroughly convalescent,
meet with others and so the disease is spread.
Throughout these epidemics, especially in the neighbourhood
of Winstanly Boad and the newly formed streets I
was struck with the lowr state of vitality of the people,
and it was only with the greatest difficulty they could
be raised from their beds of sickness; this fact was duly
reported and a thorough examination of the whole
system of sewers was made, with the result that the construction
of a new-main sewer in Winstanly Boad was
found to be necessarv.