View report page

90
re-vaccination the Guardians opened a temporary night station at
Cathcart Road, in the south district, and made provision for late
attendance at the public station in the north district.
Proceedings were taken in two cases against married women for
offences under the Births and Deaths Registration Act, viz., false
statements given to the Registrar on the occasion of registering a
birth, the object of falsifying the Register being to evade the
vaccination of children. In the first case the woman was convicted,
but the judge, whose opinions on the vaccination question
are pronounced, imposed the nominal punishment of two days
imprisonment, the offender being at once discharged. In the other
case the offender pleaded guilty, and having been severely censured
by the judge, was liberated on her entering into recognizances
to come up for judgment when called upon.
The Protection afforded By Vaccination.—As bearing on
the question of the protective power of vaccination and re-vaccination,
reference may be made to a circular letter, issued in October,
1879, by the Managers of the Metropolitan Asylum District, in
which they summed up the experience acquired in the hospitals
by the Medical Superintendents of the several small-pox hospitals
under the control of the Board. The Managers state that "the
observations of these gentlemen confirm former opinions on the
subject, and establish beyond doubt the mitigating influence in
small-pox cases of successful primary vaccination, and the preventive
powers of efficient re-vaccination." It is needless to quote
at length the valuable statistics furnished : but it may suffice to
state that the mortality was 8.8 per eent. of the vaccinated, and no
less than 44.4 per cent. of the unvaccinated, the observations
extending to a total of 15,171 cases, treated in the hospitals in the
epidemic which began in 1876. It is added, that "no case of
small-pox has come within the cognizance of either of the Medical
Superintendents, of any person who had been efficiently vaccinated,
and successfully re-vaccinated. Moreover, the nurses and servants
employed from time to time at the various hospitals during the
epidemic, have enjoyed almost absolute immunity from infection;
and the few—some half-dozen among nearly one thousand—who
contracted the disease, whilst discharging their duties, had from