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44
Kensington. A "North" or Notting; Hill Station at Cornwall Road.
which served for the large district north of the Uxbridge Road ;
a "Central" Station near Kensington High Street Railway
Station, for the district between the Uxbridge and Kensington
Roads, and a part of the parish south of the latter road; and a
"South" or Brompton Station in the Brompton Road, at the corner
of Michael's Grove—and, therefore, close to the southern boundary
of the parish— for the "Brompton" Poor Law District. The new
"South" Station, for the combined Central and South Districts, is
at the Chapel in Hornton Street, close to the old "Central"
Station. The distance of the remotest parts of this combined
district from the Station is about one and a half miles The part
of the district where small-pox has most prevailed—and of which
I field Road may be taken as the centre - is about equi-distant
from the old Brompton Station and the new South Station.
The vaccination arrangements throughout the country are controlled
by the Local Government Board, who have adopted the plan
of attaching to each Station a district with a population sufficient
to ensure a regular weekly number of infants adequate to provide
for "arm to arm" (or "primary") vaccination. On an average
of three years the annual number of primary vaccinations at the
Brompton Station was about 190, or less than four weekly,
taking no account of fluctuations which might sometimes
endanger the maintenance of the supply of fresh lymph.*
This number being deemed insufficient, the Local Government
Board advised the Guardians to close the Station. It is too early,
of course, to judge what effect, if any, this step will have on the
course of public vaccination in Brompton; but we are justified
in assuming, and no one doubts, that the Vaccination Officer will
take care that infants are vaccinated at the proper time, either
at the station or elsewhere. So far, moreover, it would appear
there has been no falling off in numbers, for whereas on an average
of three years the quarterly number of infant vaccinations at the
Brompton Station was 47 (the number in the first quarter of
1877, was 42), the number of Brompton cases at the new
station in the first quarter of 1878 was 44.
I am not aware of any complaint having been made of the distance
mothers have to travel to get their infants gratuitously vaccinated
in the North district—though the extreme distances are
greater than in the enlarged South district; and so far as I can
ascertain, the arrangements at that station, where 1642 primary
vaccinations were performed in 1877, are deemed satisfactory. In
the old Central and South stations, now combined, the primary
vaccinations in 1877 were 767, of which 191 were done at
*On 28 occasions during 1877 the weekly number of primary vaccinations fell
below four: on eleven occasions there were three; on ten occasions two; and on
seven occasions only one.