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registrar of births and deaths and the public vaccinator. It certainly would
be sound economy on the part of the local authorities so to pay the registrar
of births as to induce him to take such steps as will compel the parents to
obtain vaccination for all the children which arc registered at his office.
That the Act of 1867 requires amendment is obvious to all who have
been engaged in the practical working of its several provisions. In the first
place the 16th clause which requires a child to be vaccinated within three
months of its birth is so worded as to lead to different interpretations of its
meaning; secondly, the working of the 31st clause is attended with so much
trouble and difficulty that it will under the present arrangements be seldom
acted on; and thirdly, the 8th clause which relates to the payment for revaccination
is very unsatisfactory, for there is the same amount of trouble
in revaccinating as in vaccinating a child for the first time, yet the payment
for such revaccination is only two-thirds of the amount paid for the first
vaccination. Again, there is no provision made in the Act for the public
vaccinator to examine the children in the public schools and vaccinate all
such children who have not been, in his opinion, satisfactorily vaccinated.
Moreover the numerous notices, forms, and certificates which are required
to be filled up are so long, and to the uninformed so complicated, that
they are not properly attended to. Again, the amount of writing which
is demanded from the public vaccinator in filling up his vaccination
books (one of these books consisting of sixteen columns, all of which must be
filled up for every person vaccinated) is a needless encroachment on his
time. Further, under existing circumstances, when all the children requiring
vaccination must be brought to the public station, and the vaccinator is
prohibited from vaccinating children at the residences of their parents, the
payment per case for each successful vaccination is faulty in the extreme,
inasmuch as it offers an inducement to the public vaccinator to vaccinate
all children registered in the District whether they be fit subjects for the
operation or not; and it may happen that children suffering from hereditary
syphilis or from other skin diseases, or from febrile disorders may be
vaccinated whereby unsatisfactory results are obtained.
If it should be determined to pay the public vaccinator a fixed salary,
he should be appointed by the Government, and he should be required to
submit to the Privy Council his reports in such form and as often as the
Medical Officer of the Privy Council may require.
The importance of making the registration of births compulsory in
England as it is in Scotland and in Ireland is now generally insisted on.
Under the present law relative to the registration of births, very many births
are not registered, and for this reason it will be a very difficult matter to
enforce the Vaccination Act as regards infants.