VACCINATION.

Kumara Times, Issue 596, 26 August 1878, Page 2

VACCINATION.

The “ Lancet” advocates the immediate appointment of the Royal Commission to inquire into the subject of vaccl- . nation.. Such a commission, it thinks, composed of trusted authorities, would do more than could be done in any other way to reassure the public mind and remove groundless objection. The issues to be settled, in the opinion of the medical paper, do not relate to the * specific value of vaccination as a preventitive of small-pox, but to the method of • its employment, the best manner of collecting and recording results, and the/, public value of the facts at present classed as statistics. The whole subject of re-vaccination —its necessity and effective performance—needs investigation, or, at least, to be so set before the public that it may be thoroughly understood. Upon some features of the requirement that adults should be re-yao-cinated misconception prevails, and this * is one of those subjects in regard toA which there is much to gain and no- \ thing to lose by the most complete publicity. The “ Lancet” thinks it not too late to appoint such a commission as it' suggests, even before the present Parliamentary session comes to an end. *

A TERRIBLE WEAPON. j — i On June 7 Mr Ackers, agent to Dr. {ratling, inventor of the mitrailleuse, tried, at bealand Range. Chester, in the presence of Captain Rogers and a number of officers and men connected with the pensioners pow up for training, three new patent Gatling guns which have never before been tried in England. The mitrailleuses;, were first tried at 1000 yards, range, Mr Ackers working the machine. When everything had been arranged, a signal was given, and the weapon ponied out a regular hail of bullets, the majority of which struck the canvass target, anil tore, it all to threads, and penetrated quite' through the stout two-inch oak supporting the poles. Accurate time was kept by Captain Rogers, and it was ascertained that the mitrailleuse fired 1000 rounds per minute, which is 300 or 400 rounds per minute faster than any other Gatling gun. Experiments with the weapon were then tried at 800 and 6GO yards range, and the, way in which the bullets were hurled at the target, and the marvellous precision with which they struck astonished every one present. Sergeant Mayer, who was marking, said a sparrow, must have beeirkilled crossing the line of the fire- bullets which fell a little short/ tore up clods of earth as large as a fist, and hurled them right over the target'in to the markman’s retreat- The '.opinion of .competent judges is that this is tha most destructive weapon ever invented. '