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It will be seen from the above table that only a relatively small
percentage of infants are immunised against smallpox. This is probably due
in part to the innate objection to inoculation of any sort and it is also due to
a certain extent to the absence of bad cases of smallpox which normally stir
up fear among parents; further, parents may have been influenced by the
reports in the papers of complications from vaccination. It is well, however,
to point out that serious complications are practically non-existent if
vaccination is first performed under six months of age, and similarly
complications do not occur in children or adults who are re-vaccinated, having
been vaccinated in infancy. Complications however are possible, and do occur
from time to time, in primary vaccinations done over the age of six months,
and in fact are more common the older the person is. If therefore there should
be an outbreak of virulent smallpox in the future and a large number of
children and adults are vaccinated for the first time as the result of this, there
may be cases of bad complications. This can be avoided by having the baby
vaccinated before six months of age.
Disinfection.
In cases of infectious disease, rooms, clothing, etc., are disinfected—
rooms by sealing and fumigating with formalin or a formalin preparation;
clothing, bedding, etc., and infected articles which can be removed for steam
disinfection, by treatment in the disinfector at the hospital.

The following articles were destroyed: 33 mattresses, 4 bolsters, 2 sheets,
19 pillows, 2 blankets, 1 eiderdown, 100 articles of clothing.
Cancer.
It will be seen by the table of causes of death (page 11) that in 1938
57 cases (27 males, 30 females) died from cancer. The following table shows
the number of deaths from cancer (male and female), the estimated population
of the district, and the deaths from cancer per 1,000 population since 1922.
It will be seen that in 1938 there was a decrease in the cancer mortality.
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