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by him, and was insusceptible of vaccination. This person was
fined £10 and costs. Mr. Shattock insisted on the child being again
vaccinated by a qualified practitioner, and the operation proved
" thoroughly successful."
The Government Vaccination Bill.— In connexion with the
subject of vaccination, it is necessary to refer to a retrograde step
proposed by the Government, and which, if carried into effect, may
lead to small-pox becoming a common disease in the future, as it was
in the now-distant past. It is a concession to the anti-vaccinationists,
in the form of a Bill ("Vaccination Acts Amendment Act,") which
proposes to enact that "no parent of a child shall be liable to be
convicted for neglecting to take, or to cause to be taken such child to
be vaccinated, or for disobedience to any order directing such child to
be vaccinated, if either (a) he has been previously adjudged to pay
the full penalty of twenty shillings for any of such offences with
respect of such child; or (6) he has been previously twice adjudged to
pay any penalty for any of such offences in respect of such child."
Should this Bill become law, any parent who may object to vaccination
will be enabled, at the cost of a few shillings, to escape the performance
of what is by most reasonable persons regarded as a duty equally
owing to society at large and to his own offspring. Under the
existing law, penalties are multiple, i.e., a parent may be fined again
and again (inter alia) for neglecting to have his child vaccinated, and
for disobeying the order of a magistrate requiring him to have his
child vaccinated: and although the multiplication of penalties,
rendered necessary by contumacy, may seem to savor of "persecution,"
experience proves that it is really the only means of securing the
vaccination of the children of contumacious parents, and of those who
would deny their children the protection of vaccination, were it not
for fear of the consequences of setting the law at defiance. But should
the Government Bill pass, anti-vaccinationists would soon have their
way, for were the operation to cease to be compulsory, in the sense in
which it is now compulsory, it would practically become optional,
and thus, year by year, an ever-increasing number of persons would
exist in our midst, who, being themselves unprotected by vaccination,
and, therefore, intensely liable to small-pox, would become the means
in any future epidemic of spreading the disease indefinitely. The