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15
population, as the means of preventing it is universally
known. The legislation that has been attempted on
this point, has been utterly futile, and in no parish
in London has vaccination been so general as to
exclude the danger of Small Pox.
I last year reported that the attempt made to
superintend the vaccination of the children in your
Parish had failed. The following extract from my
fortnightly Report, made January 5th, 1865, will
give you an idea of the nature of the efforts which
were made:—
"During the past year the Inspector has con"tinued
his inquiries with regard to the vaccination
"of children. He has seen upwards of 1200
"children, and 500 still remain upon the books to
"be seen. Of the children visited, 500 were found
"vaccinated, and 118 unvaccinated. Of these
"91 have been since vaccinated. This then is the
"real value of his labours: 91 children have been
"vaccinated, who would probably have been left to
"catch and spread the Small Pox. 155 children
"were removed; 81 were dead; 64 the address
"given was wrong; 6 refused to give any informa"tion;
151 only had preserved the vaccination
"certificate. Very few of the medical practitioners
1"return the vaccination certificate to the Registrar,
''Which they are required to do by the Act, and some
"parishes I find have threatened proceedings unless
"this is done. The medical men refuse on the
"ground that they are not paid for the certificate.