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6
winter quarter. Small-pox was fatal to 31 persons of all ages from 12 days
old to between 40 and 60 years. In addition to this number there were 2
deaths in the Small-Fox Hospital out of the 22 persons who were admitted
into that institution from this district. Of the 22 cases 18 had been vaccinated.
The deaths were among the unvaccinated. Measles has been fatal to 19,
hooping cough to 15, diarrhoea to 13, and fever to 37. In the corresponding
quarter of the previous year the deaths from small-pox were 3, from measles
10, from scarlet fever and diphtheria 18, from hooping cough 21, from
diarrhoea 3, and from fever 53. It appears from the returns of the local
registrars that 9 of the deaths from small-pox occurred in children who had
not been vaccinated, and that four deaths from this disease occurred in one
week at No. 22 Castle Alley.
The present epidemic of small-pox has now prevailed during the last six
months. During this time there have been registered 48 deaths from this disease
and 167 cases have been attended by the Medical Officers of the Union. As
early as the 2nd of February last I addressed a letter to the Guardians drawing
their attention to the fact that small-pox was very prevalent in the Union.
Upon the receipt of my letter the Guardians held a conference with the
several Vaccinators of the District upon the subject, and the result of the
conference was the issuing of notices calling the attention of all persons to
the penalty for neglecting to have their children vaccinated. The issuing of
these notices has been the means of extending vaccination among the children
residing in the district. If the Public Vaccinators of the District were required
not only to perform vaccination at the appointed stations but also to call at every
house in their respective districts where there had been a child born within
three months of such call being made and then to offer to vaccinate the child
the usual excuses on the part of parents as the want of time, etc., to take the
child to the public station could not be made, and the result would be that
many more children would be vaccinated. It is no doubt better for
the successful performance of vaccination that all children should be taken to
the public station, but as all parents cannot be prevailed upon to do so it is
absolutely necessary, if vaccination is to be extended to all, that a similar
mode to that generally adopted by medical practitioners with their private
patients should be acted upon, viz., to vaccinate children at their homes. The
benefits resulting from vaccination are not exclusively confined, as is often
supposed, to the child successfully vaccinated, but the public generally are
benefitted by each successful case of vaccination, for in proportion as the
child obtains thereby some amount of security against an attack of small-pox
is the public rendered safer from the ravages of the disease by a diminution