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attention of the parishioners to the unusual prevalence of the
disorder, urging the necessity of having vaccination performed
immediately on those persons who had not yet been operated
upon, and strongly recommending its repetition in all cases in
which a period of 14 or 15 years had elapsed since its original
performance. This was followed by the appearance of a bill,
issued by the Board of Guardians, in which the names and
addresses of the appointed vaccinators were specified; and it is
pleasing to be able to state, on unquestionable authority, that
these proceedings were followed in a large number of instances
by the desired results. The great extent, however, to
which the disorder has prevailed, and the knowledge that its
prevalence is in great measure due to the non-performance of
vaccination, determined me to devise if possible some other
mode of dealing with the subject of its prevention. And with this
object I have latterly begun to have appended to the ordinary
systematic returns of house to house visitation, returns of the
number of unvaccinated persons dwelling in each house reported
upon; in order to press the performance of the operation on those
who have neglected it through thoughtlessness or ignorance, and
to enforce it by the power of the law on those who pertinaciously
oppose it. Lastly, almost all those houses in which deaths
from diphtheria, scarlet fever, small pox, and fever were known
to have occurred; and most of these in which cases of these
diseases have been attended and recorded by the parochial surgeons
have been submitted to inspection; their condition has
been reported on, and such defects in connection with them as
appeared likely to be prejudicial to health have, as far as practicable,
been removed or obviated.
In conclusion, gentlemen, I beg to congratulate you on the
commencement of that important sanitary measure, the main
drainage of the metropolis; and on the fair prospect which we
now have of the final abolition of the cesspool nuisance, that great