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having beneficial results; but the Committee consider it their duty to draw serious
attention to the question of re-vaccination. The dangers, misery, and expense
attendant upon the neglect of such a simple precaution as re-vaccination, as well as
the certainty of its protective power, are yearly becoming more apparent, and the
mclancholy spectacle afforded by the array of figures appended hereto, lends strength
to the opinion of the Committee that re-vaccination at or just before puberty of those
who have been vaccinated in infancy, especially of those cases in which there is
evidence that the operation was not efficiently or successfully performed, should be
made compulsory. The necessity for such an addition to the Vaccination Laws, and
for making more effective regulations for the treatment of Small Pox and other
epidemics, becomc more and more evident as each year adds to the Small Pox and
Fever Statistics, and enlarges the experience gained at the several Hospitals. The
Committee suggest that such regulations should embrace :—
Periodical House to House Visitation, to ascertain if the inhabitants have been
vaccinated or re-vaccinated ;
Hospital accommodation for Non-Pauper Cases ;
Removal to Hospital of Cases which cannot be effectively isolated ; and
The Registration of Infectious Diseases (i.e., notice to be given by every Medical
Practitioner to the Health Officer of the District, of cases of infectious
disease, so that precaution may be taken to prevent its spread).
All of which if made compulsory would, the Committee believe, tend to prevent
Small Pox epidemics recurring so frequently, or, at all events, to obviate this dreadful
scourge spreading so rapidly and extensively as it has done hitherto.
(Signed) JAMES BARRINGER,
Chairman of the Committee.
The following important correspondence upon this matter, though
not coming within the year 1877, bears directly upon the subject, and
is therefore inserted here:—
"The Metropolitan Asylum District, 37, Norfolk Street, Strand,
London, April 1st, 1878, W.C.
Dear Sir,—Referring to my circular letters of the 26th February and the 20th
June, 1877, transmitting copies of Reports of the Committee for General Purposes
of this Board upon the subject of providing Hospital accommodation for non-paupers
when suffering from contagious diseases, I have been directed by the Managers to
forward for the information of your Vestry the accompanying copy of a Memorial
which the Managers have recently received from the Limehouse Board of Works,
upon the subject in question, together with a copy of a Report thereon of the
Committee for General Purposes, to whom such Memorial was referred by the
Managers.
I have also been directed to request that the Vestry of the Parish of St. Matthew,
Bcthnal Green, will be good enough to inform the Managers as to how far they agree
with the Limehouse Board of Works in the views which they have enunciated, and
upon which they have memoralized the Managers.
I am, dear Sir, yours faithfully,
W. F. JEBB, Clerk.
To R, Voss, Esq., Vestry Clerk,
St. Matthew, Bethnal Green."