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As I have said elsewhere, if I could have but one wish so far as childish ailments
are concerned it would be to abolish rheumatism. I do not mean that children
suffer from those crippling diseases commonly associated with old age but they do
suffer from "growing pains" which are of rheumatic origin, and they do suffer
from inflammation of the heart due to rheumatism, and it is damage caused to
the heart by this inflammation which takes an enormous toll both on health and
life in later years.
Incidentally, of course, it does interfere considerably with school life and if we
are to tackle it properly it is going to interfere still more with school life.
There is no denying that the common childhood infections are still a serious
problem in the amount of school time wasted and the protracted ill-health they
cause. It is also true that, while apart from time wasted, Chickenpox and German
Measles are not normally serious in themselves, and we can be proud and pleased
that the most deadly (Diphtheria, Smallpox and Meningococcal Meningitis) are
now practically under control; yet so long as Measles and Whooping Cough (and—
to a lesser extent—Tuberculosis) remain virtually uncontrolled, we cannnot rest
content.

Question:—Vaccination against Smallpox is no longer compulsory.
Why don't you bother about Smallpox now ?
Answer:—Oftentimes I have been tempted to think it takes far more information
to put a question properly than it does to answer it, and this question which has
been put to me illustrates my difficulty, because the plain blunt fact is I am very
worried about Smallpox.
If anything, the risk of Smallpox is likely to increase. What I have felt for a
long time and what I am very happy to find is now recognised, is that voluntary
vaccination with the co-operation of enlightened public opinion is the real answer
to our problem, and not mass vaccination during infancy.
Several deadly outbreaks of imported Asiatic Smallpox have occurred in
recent years with repercussions in Barking. With faster travel, particularly by
air, there is a growing risk that, despite every precaution, Smallpox may at any
moment be introduced into this country, and our position, close as we are to the
great docks of the London river, makes it very necessary that we should be always
on the alert, and herein I would want to say with thankfulness I have received
co-operation from the public. Incidentally a case which refuses this co-operation
is so uncommon that it only helps to emphasize the ready co-operation with which
I have been met on all sides.
This does not mean I am suggesting to parents that they should not have
their children vaccinated, because whilst the protection for such vaccination only
lasts a matter of some years it almost invariably means that when these people come
to be vaccinated in later life they have much less disability than if they are vaccinated
for the first time when adults.
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