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has lost none of its deadly power. Uncontrolled by
vaccination, the disease is as capable in onr time, as
during the last century, of extending, nay, of multiplying
its ravages ; since there are in the present day
larger areas of population, and greatly increased facilities
of communication between persons and places.
Believing that to the community of mankind, whatever
may be its sanitary conditions, vaccination, when
properly performed, is with rare exceptions an effectual
safeguard against small pox, however great may be its
intensity; and knowing as a matter of fact, that, despite
Compulsory Vaccination Acts, thousands on an average
annually perish from that disease—not to speak of the
disfigurement, the blindness, the deafness, the incurable
weakness, and other irreparable evils it too often
entails—for reasons which I cannot here particularize,
I am of opinion,
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1.—That the time allowed by law for the vaccination
of infants might with advantage be reduced.
2.—That vaccination with preserved lymph should
be discouraged, and that only ' arm to arm ' vaccination,
save in exceptional instances, should be recognised.
3.—That the performance of vaccination should be
restricted to public vaccinators appointed, paid, and
systematically supervised by the State.
Details are matters for administrative arrangement.
All have a common interest in the prevention of
infectious diseases. With this re-adjustment of the