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in the incubation period of that disease. Thus in three counties Small-pox arose in
connection with each of these vessels from which a man had landed whilst suffering
from unrecognised Small-pox.
In the case ex s.s. "Derbyshire," out of the persons who left the vessel, 185 were
notified, and of these only seven could not be traced, but it was unfortunate that the
notification of the man G. should have been sent to the wrong place, as he developed the
disease, was not medically attended, and infected other persons. It was fortunate that
owing to the routine practice of taking the names and addresses of all persons
arriving on vessels coming from infected ports that so many names and addresses were
available for notification. Had the vessel not come from an infected port there would
have been no list of names and addresses forthcoming, and had there been a case of
Small-pox on such a vessel, there would have been no power to compel persons to give
their names and addresses or even to punish them if they gave names and addresses
which were incorrect.
There is, moreover, no power to compel vaccination or segregation of contacts.
Sailors generally refuse to be vaccinated, and unless they voluntarily submit to control,
there is no power to prevent them going where they will, and when they do land, they
generally go amongst a class of people who are indifferent to the protective properties of
vaccination.
In a country adequately protected by vaccination and re-vaccination—e.g., Germany,
there would be little risk of an outbreak of Small-pox occurring, but with a largely increasing
number of persons in this country who do not avail themselves of the protective
properties of vaccination, it is probably only a question of time when an epidemic of
Small-pox will again occur in this country.
In the Commonwealth of Australia there are parts of the country where, I am
informed, no less than 80 per cent. of the people are unprotected by vaccination against
Small-pox, and the Commonwealth Government have issued regulations under their
Quarantine Act, 1908, for preventing the introduction of Small-pox.
In the Commonwealth of Australia, Small-pox is a quarantinable disease, and every
vessel arriving from overseas, and every vessel on which any quarantinable disease has
broken out or been discovered, shall be subject to quarantine.
I append a few extracts from the Commonwealth Quarantine Act of 1908, which
will indicate the restrictions found to be necessary and desirable in a country where
the population contains a large number of unvaccinated persons.
Section 34.—(1) Where a vessel has arrived at any port from a proclaimed
place, or is subject to quarantine, and the quarantine officer is satisfied that no
person on board is actually suffering from a quarantinable disease, but is not satisfied
that the vessel is free from infection, he may, subject to this Section:—
(a) Refrain from giving a certificate of pratique.
(b) Permit the vessel to proceed on her voyage without performing
quarantine at a quarantine station.
(c) Permit any passengers for that port and their effects to be landed.
(d) Permit any cargo on the vessel for that port to be landed.
(2) The vessel shall continue to be subject to quarantine until pratique is
granted.