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145
.recognise. The return shows a loss of 3'9 per cent, in the
-cases, as against 3.3 and 4.0 in the two previous years, in
column 10, indicating loss "from removal of children to places
out of parish unknown, or which cannot be reached, and cases
not having been found." In the Metropolis, as a whole, the loss
is considerably greater.
The Guardians, as the vaccination authority, instituted a
partial house to house visitation last year, for the double purpose
of discovering unvaccinated children, and of urging the desirability
of revaccination in every case, when it has not already
been successfully performed, in persons over twelve years of age,
who have not had small-pox. It was arranged that the vaccination
stations should be open for a time on one night in each week for
revaccination only, in addition to the usual arrangements. Vaccination
by private medical practitioners is seriously hampered by the
difficulty of obtaining lymph. The Guardians also issued handbills
and posters for information in regard to vaccination and
revaccination, and in the handbill they seized the opportunity of
reiterating some of the advice in regard to sanitary matters which
your Vestry supplied to every householder in the parish in 1883,
in the form of "Suggestions for Preventing the Spread of
Infectious Diseases," &c.
The Poor Law Guardians are, as I have just said, the local
authority for carrying out the provisions of the Vaccination Acts,
and in this parish the Guardians have always supported their officer
in the discharge of his responsible duties, so that the powers of the
Acts have been fully exercised. Some persons are of the opinion that
it would be well if the administration of the Vaccination Acts were
vested in the Sanitary Authority. A communication on this subject
was addressed last year by the Vestry of St. James, Westminster,
to the several Vestries and District Boards. The Vestry of St.
James stated their opinion that the Acts might be "more efficiently
administered if the appointment of Public Vaccinators and Vaccination
Officers were vested in the Local Sanitary Authority,
instead of in the Poor Law Guardians, and that vaccination could
be enforced more readily if entirely dissociated from the Poor Law."