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prevailed in the parish. How many patients were
treated at home, or how many ' mild eases/ the result
of previous imperfect vaccination, capable nevertheless
of spreading the disease, were not treated at all, must
ever remain a matter of conjecture ; and this uncertainty
will continue to be the case in future epidemics,
so long as the registration of infectious diseases is
not made compulsory.
From measles, which existed as an epidemic in
other parishes, from scarlet fever, diarrhoea, and typhoid
fever, the deaths were fewer than in the previous year.
From whooping cough the deaths were far too
numerous, being nearly 1 in 25 of the total deaths, an
abnormal proportion attributable, there is every reason
to believe, to the want of care in avoiding, during the
progress of the disease, cold and damp, the causes of
pectoral and other complications. The simple form of
the disease is rarely fatal. Of the 69 children who
succumbed to it, 54 lived in St. Mary's and 15 in St.
John's sub-districts respectively. 50 of them were
under two years of age ; at which period of life it has
been observed to be most fatal, probably on account of
its occurring during dentition. All, with the exception
of two or three, were the children of poor parents.
VACCINATION.
The interest felt by the public in vaccination, as a
prophylactic measure against small pox, is evidenced
by the letters and articles which have frequently