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24
Of the measures employed in subduing the late outbreak of smallpox, I have
already said enough; but to prevent such an epidemic for the future, we must
secure the complete vaccination of every child in the parish. As a preliminary to
this, it is essential that the Birth of every child should be registered; and a petition
to Parliament has lately been adopted by the Board, (Appendix VIII.) urging the
desirability of a measure to this effect. If this first step should be gained, other
more exact legislative measures will then be required to ensure the protection of
vaccination being extended to every child born. At present it is nobody's business
to-enforce the law which forbids the caprice or ignorance of a parent exposing his
child to disease and death, and the community to a constant source of danger. The
Association of Health Officers have had this defect of the law under their most
anxious consideration, and their representations to Government on the subject have
been very well received. In a matter of this kind, however, the action of Government
requires to be preceded by an expression of public opinion, It is quite
as right and as needful that the Legislature should protect a man against the danger
of an unvaccinatcd family next door, as against a neighbour who should choose to
keep barrels of gunpowder in his house. Petitions to Parliament should be
adopted, praying that the laws relating to vaccination may be made more efficient,
and Government would thus be justified in advancing—what I know them
to be anxious for—a scheme for the effectual prevention of the ravages of
smallpox.*
GEORGE BUCHANAN, B.A., M.D., Londin,
Member of the Royal College of Physicians;
Physician to the Western General Dispensary,
Medical Officer of Health.
*By the repeal of Clause VIII. in the Public Health Act of 1858, the authority of the
Directors of the Poor to appoint persons to enforce the Vaccination Laws is at an end.