View report page

11
has been printed as a Parliamentary paper. He bases his statements
upon the returns of the Registrar-General in respect to the extent of
vaccination amongst those who have died from Small Pox, and draws the
following conclusions:—Firstly, that the vaccinated are much less liable
to die of Small Pox than the unvaccinated; secondly, that vaccination is
not an absolute protection against Small Pox; and, thirdly, that the degree
of protection afforded by vaccination is greatest to people under five years
of age, and diminishes as the age advances. Dr. Buchanan considers that
the statistics must be regarded as pointing strongly to a need for repeating
vaccination as age advances. He also urges that the degree of
protection afforded depends on the thoroughness of the vaccination.
Now, there is no doubt that much of the so-called vaccination in this
country, although certified as successful, is really so imperfect as to confer
very little protection against Small Pox, and it is this which throws so
much discredit upon vaccination. The whole machinery of vaccination
requires searching investigation, and ruthless exposure where necessary.
I take the liberty of here repeating a suggestion, made by me some years
ago, that the inspection of vaccination, and certification of its efficacy,
should be entrusted to some one other than the vaccinator himself. The
public vaccinator of one district might be made viewer or inspector of the
next, and vice versa, somewhat after the manner in which, in large houses
of business, one assistant checks and counter-signs the bill of his colleague.
This would doubtless cause a good deal of extra trouble and expense, but
I feel sure the result would be worth it. I wonder what business men
would think of the policy of trusting a builder to certify as to the
excellence of his own work as the sole condition precedent to his receiving
payment for the completion of his contract.
I think, too, that the certificates should show the number and size of
the resulting cicatrices, and that a child imperfectly vaccinated should
be compelled to undergo the operation again after the lapse of two or
three years, instead of waiting for adolescence.
According to recent returns, little more than 6 per cent, of the children
in this parish escape successful vaccination; and yet it appears from a
report, based upon a house to house visitation, made by four assistants to
the Vaccination Officer, by order of the Guardians, that out of a total of
6018 children under fourteen, respecting whom enquiries had been made,
no less than 828, or 13.8 per cent., were unvaccinated. Such a failure of