View report page

In the 27th Annual Report of the Local Government Board
Sir B. Thorne in the Vaccination Officers' returns shows:—
"That after deducting from a total of 921,512 births, those
children who were successfully vaccinated, those who died unvaccinated,
those who were registered as 'insusceptible' of
vaccination, and those who bad small-pox before vaccination,
there still remained 20'5 per cent. who could not be traced or
were otherwise not finally accounted for as regards vaccination.
The proportion unaccounted for in the Metropolis was 24.9 per
cent., that for the rest of England was 19.8; both of which rates
show a still further increase on a failure to comply with the provisions
of the Vaccination Acts which has been steadily growing
for some fifteen years. Indeed, if allowance be made for the
further falling off in this respect which is believed to have occurred
since 1895, the number of children now born in England and
Wales who in one way or another escape vaccination, is probably
not much less than one-third of the whole. In this way the
country is being prepared for wide-spread epidemics of small-pox
such as have been unknown to the present generation; unless,
indeed, the invariable rush and clamour for immediate vaccination
on the part of those who have neglected or declaimed against
the operation during times of freedom from small-pox, should be
capable of being so far met in the moment of emergency as
largely to mitigate the impending disaster."
Glycebinated Calf-Lymph Laboeatoey.
Arrangements have been made by the Local Government
Board at the laboratory of the British Institute of Preventive
Medicine for the inoculation of special calves, and for the
preparation of the lymph collected from them in the
glycerinated form. The distribution of lymph by the Board
will be commenced on January 1st, 1899, when the Vaccination
Act of 1898 comes into operation. Sir R. Thorne
continues thus:—
"Dr. Blaxall, in the same report, gives an account of one additional
year's experience in vaccinating the calf, in collecting lymph
from the calf ; in glycerinating such lymph and in storing it;
and as to the results of his bacterial testing of glycerinated calf-