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36
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
and Statistics relating thereto.
SMALL POX.
No case of Small Pox was notified during 1913.
The immunity from Small Pox for many years has,
apparently, set at rest the minds of the inhabitants of the
district respecting the probability of an invasion.
They have the vigilance of the Public Health Service
alone to thank for their safety.
Personal precautionary measures are being increasingly
neglected, and no efforts of the Sanitary Authorities will be
able to stay the ravages of the disease once an entrance is
obtained for it.
The protection afforded by vaccination is observed as
much in the breach as in the acceptance, as the following
figures show, and I am constrained to emphasize the danger
to which the community is being exposed by the unpardonable
neglect of parents to protect their children from Small Pox.
The Vaccination Officer's return gives the number of
vaccination certificates received for the year as 1,430.
During the same period 1,419 declarations of "conscientious''
objection were returned. Nearly 50 per cent. of the children
accounted for have therefore been denied the protection that
vaccination affords.