View report page

7
that out of 5,797 patients admitted from 1836 to 1851 inclusive, 3,094, or
53 per cent., were after vaccination: and since that period, as might have been
anticipated, from the great increase in the number vaccinated, the per ceptage
is much larger, amounting now to about 72 per cent.
3.—That, from a table kindly given to me by Mr. Farr, the Clerk to the
Guardians of the Union, it appears that out of 2,783 registered* births, 'only
1,824, or 65.5 per cent., were successfully vaccinated by the public vaccinators;
of which number 225 were above 12 months old.
Although considerable allowance must be made for the children who die in early
infancy, and for the cases which are vaccinated by private practitioners, and at the
public vaccine institutions, still, there are a great many in this district who are not
vaccinated.
Universal vaccination, if properly performed, would be, in the concurrent opinion
of the most experienced medical men, a great and lasting benefit, both to the
state and to every family; and hence the great necessity for the operation being
performed in such a manner as will render the patient, if not entirely free from an
attack of small-pox, at all events, exempt from its fatal influence-†
From the most extensive statistical returns of the Small-pox Hospital, carefully
prepared by Mr. Marson, the resident Medical Officer, it appears that the mortality
from small-pox in the unvaccinated—of cases taken generally—is 35 per cent.; but of
children under 5 years of age, it is 50 per cent. The natural small-pox may be said to
destroy one-third of all whom it attacks. On the contrary, the mortality among the
vaccinated attacked with small-pox, is only 7 per cent, taken generally ; but among
what may be characterised as the badly vaccinated, it is 15 per cent. The danger,
therefore, arising from an attack of small-pox, may be said to be chiefly determined
by the badness or insufficiency of vaccination. Such being the case, it is impossible to
estimate too highly the importance of properly performing vaccination in infancy. A
careless vaccination cannot be too strongly deprecated, for, " by such a proceeding,
the vaccination takes effect badly, and will never afterwards take effect properly, and
yet the individual may take small-pox severely." The minutest particulars in the
performance of the operation should be regarded, for not only is the credit of the
vaccinator concerned, but the lives of the people, and the pecuniary interests of the
ratepayers are involved in the success of the operation.
Vaccination should only be performed by a qualified medical "practitioner;
whereas, many children are vaccinated, not only in this Union, but probably in other
districts in the Metropolis, by chemists and druggists, and other unqualified
individuals. This circumstance may tend to explain why so many cases of small-pox
occur, and the fatality attending them. It further appears, from the elaborate tables
*As very many of the children who are brought to be vaccinated, have not been registered, it would be very
desirable if the public vaccinators would kindly insert among their valuable observations, the fact of any child
presented for vaccination, whose birth had not been registered, for it would show to a great extent, how
defective is the existing law relating to the registration of births, and the necessity of making the registration of
births compulsory.
t Cows have been inoculated with small-pox, and with the matter taken from the resulting resides ot these
animals, children have been vaccinated. The process, therefore, of preventing small-pox by vaccination, is really
only carrying people through small-pox in a modified lorm. " The vaccinatcd are sate against small-pox, bccause
they in fact have had it."