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Nine of the 93 were unvaccinated children under 10
years of age, the rest were aged from 18 to 62. In only a
few cases is there at present precise information as to the
amount of protection the rest of the sufferers possessed
in the way of vaccination, but even supposing they had all
been thoroughly vaccinated in infancy, an 18 years old
vaccination may be of value in modifying the character of
the disease, but its protective value is small.
On the other hand, no case has occurred in the district
of a nature to shake the writer's absolute faith in the protective
power of a recent re-vaccination, which has caused
sufficient local action to show that the lymph has been
absorbed.
It would be highly desirable to know how far at the
present time the inhabitants of the Borough have had
the intelligence and will to take advantage of re-vaccination,
or, in other words, to know what human material exists
suitable for the cultivation of smallpox.
We may at once exclude the population under 15 years
of age ; the majority have been vaccinated in infancy, and
the protection will have only worn itself out in a minority
of the cases. All persons over 15, although they may have
been well vaccinated in infancy, will be more or less liable
to catch Smallpox, and these number 102,000. How many
of these have been vaccinated? the numbers could be
exactly told if all were re-vaccinated by the Public
Vaccinator, but a large number are vaccinated by other
practitioners, and hence no complete returns are available.
From certain data it would appear the number may be
anything between 16,000 and 50,000, the latter being a high