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15
Surely with such an amount of gratuitous assistance as the British
Isies present, the noble hospitals, the not less useful dispensaries, the
parochial system, with the large and well-known philanthropy of the
members of the medical profession, there remains no plea for such a state
of things. Of the 773 deaths in the two parishes, 235 were of children who
had not reached their third year, and 299 had not attained their 5th year
of age. Of these 212 belonged to the working classes, and in 54 instances
or nearly 6-1 percent, of the total mortality, the cause of death was
assigned to debility from birth, no unimportant illustration of the effects
of an enervated physical condition. Fifty children, of which Hamraermith
furnished 35, were cut off by Chest affections, and 98 from diseases
of the Zymotic class before arriving at their fifth years. Of the total
deaths 13 were from measles, 33 from whooping cough, 39 from diarrhoea,
21 from scarlatina, and 14 from typhus. Under the head of diarrhoea, the
Registrar General is in the habit of placing a large number of cases, not
only where it is connected with mesenteric disease and debility in the
young, but also in all those instances where it appears merely as a
concomitant of extreme old age. This unduly exaggerates the one and
diminishes the legitimate number of the other. It is gratifying to observe
that the deaths of no less than I32jpersons (or 17 per cent, of total deaths),
were registered last year, who had attained to 70 years and upwards. Of
these seventy eight died between 70 and 80, forty-eight between 80 and
90, and six at 90 and upwards ; the oldest persons were widows of 96, one
at Walham Green, the other an inmate of the workhouse, the relict of a
garden labourer.
I am happy to say the Fulham District has enjoyed during the last
year a happy immunity from small-pox. Only two deaths occurred
from this disease in 1856, one in 1857, and none in 1858. During the
latter part of last year, two or three cases occurred at Crab Tree, Fulham,
and more recently one in Fulham Fields, and another in Britannia
Court, Hammersmith, but, owing I believe, to the promptness of Mr. Roy
and the Union Authorities in immediately removing these latter cases to
the Small Fox Hospital, the progress of the disease has been entirely
stayed. In connection with these cases, I am desirous of arousing the
attpntion of the public to the necessity for every care being paid to vaccination.
Prejudice with some still lingering in the community, and
indifference in others, prove yet sad stumbling-blocks to the development
of the blessings of this grand prophylactic.
The provisions of the Compulsory Vaccination Act enact that "The
father or mother of every child born in England or Wales utter the
1st day of August, in the year of Our Lord, one thousand eight hundred
and fifty-three, shall, within three calendar months after the birth of
the said child, or in the event of the death, illness, absence, or inability
of the lather and mother, then the pe rson who shall have the care,
nurture, or custody ot the said child shall, within four calendar months
after the birth of such child, take or cause to be taken the said child to
the medical officer or practitioner appointed in the Union or parish in
which the said child is resident, according to the provisions of the firstrecited
Act, for the purpose of being vaccinated, unless he shall have
been previously vaccinated by some duly qualified Medical Practitioner,
and the vaccination duly certified, and the said medical officer or practitioner
so appointed shall, and he is hereby required thereupon, or as
soon after as it may conveniently and properly be done, to vaccinate the
aaid child, &c.," and such wise precautions cannot be too rigidly and