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notice of the vaccination officer—having formerly an objection
to vaccination, which she no longer entertains ! This explanation
is necessary to clear an efficient officer from the imputation of
neglect of duty that might otherwise be thought to attach to him.
There may, nay, there must be, many similar cases to the above,
in respect of non-vaccination in Kensington, especially in children
over five years of age; for we know that for several years past
the population has increased, year by year, by the addition of between
two and three thousand immigrants. There is no means of
discovering these cases except by a house to house visitation.*
It may be mentioned that the rate of mortality from small
pox in vaccinated persons is about 13 per cent., and in unvaccinated
persons nearly 50 per cent. But it should be mentioned that
though the mortality in "vaccinated " persons taken as a whole,
may be as high as 13 per cent., the mortality in "vaccinized"
persons is much lower; lower in proportion to the efficiency of
the vaccination. Death from this disease in an efficiently re-vaccinated
person is an almost unknown occurrence.
The Registrar-General towards the close of the year published
some startling statistics, showing the protective iufluence
of vaccination in children below the age of four years:—
"There were," he says, " 348,441 children living in London
in the middle of this year between the ages of one and five
years; 317,081 had been successfully vaccinated, and 31,360
were unvaccinated. At these ages 50 deaths from small pox
were registered in London between 1st January and 18th November,
1876. Of these, one was certified to be a vaccinated case,
35 to be unvaccinated, and in 14 cases the medical certificates
did not furnish any information as to vaccination. Disregarding
the 'not stated' cases, it appears that only one death from
small-pox occurred among the 317,081 vaccinated children
living in London between one and five years of age : whereas,
35 deaths from this disease were recorded among the 31,360
unvaccinated children at the same ages. Thus, in equal numbers
living, 372 deaths from small pox occurred among unvaccinated
to one death from the same cause among vaccinated children at
* A house to house visitation was commenced soon after the above paragraph was
written, and the Vaccination Officer reported the results as follow:—"Three hundred
streets and places were visited, numbering 7,996 houses inhabited by 21,000 separate
families, resulting in a discovery of 290 unvaccinated children born in all parts of the
Kingdom, and some on the Continent Several born in this parish were
not registered, others never reside at the place of birth registered." Certain parochial
schools were also inspected, and 60 unvaccinated children discovered out of a
total of 2,089. An application by the Guardians to the School Board for London
for permission to inspect the children in " Board Schools," was not acceded
to, the Board not seeing their way to concur in the suggestion of the Guardians that
the Vaccination Officer be allowed to inspect the children in Board Schools. More
than 300 of the 350 children referred to were vaccinated shortly after discovery. All
were duly accounted for, and in four cases only were legal proceedings found necessary.